Is their a serious Race problem in T&T?

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teacher

I think that racism is taught to us both directly and indirectly. I grew up in a predominantly indian village where there were only three african household. My home being one of them. Strange as it may seem we were not on overly friendly terms with the other africans because i later come to realise we were poor and they were working class. Our friendship was with the other poor family in the neighbour hood who were indians. My first real conscious glimpse of race and training myself to look for it was when i was in form two and my sister told me that i should not tell the indian boy that i liked, how i feel about him because although he might have feelings for me his mother would never allow me in her house. I of course asked him about it and he did tell me that his family would not allow it. I still talk to him and remembers his birthday every year even after more than 20 years. Sad.
Is there racism. yes. but i think it is born out of loyality to family or just plain fear. I think though that there is more love. QUESTION: have you every been conversing with a group of people and there is only one person from another race in the group and someone is bad talking that persons race and then turns to them and says "not you though, you are different from the others in your race?'' Sad.
My best friend is a dougla and my son's best friend is an indian. I teach him that a person can be good or bad irregardless of their race. Hope that i am contributing to a less racial society.

julien

huh ! well boy if is one ting i could relate too eh.
I grow up hearing my grandparents bad talk "N" ah mean like if dey was de devil self, but i also notice that ALL dey daughter-in-laws was of dat race hmmmmm.
De amount ah boof i get for playing in de road wit dem "N**ggers"...yuh know wha i say to dem --- i have to play with dem cuz meh c**lie cousins doh play with meh" i think dat wha give meh grandfather ah heart conditon
I of all person eh have one race to call meh own no sah !
Meh grandfather on meh mother side Chinee and he wife was ah Spanish with some Carib. She Grandmother was some "blue eye" woman from P. Rico (madness i tell yuh)
Meh father side is de Indian..but still i de only set ah Indian i did know at de time with curly hair, meh uncle used to say de girls used to get sea sick when dey play with he hair --- too much waves lol
SO at de end of the day people have to understand dat we all is one, it eh have no pure race in T&T or the Caribbean. Nah man de mingle started loooooong time ago.
I get de "look" all de time growing up --- yeah de one dat says yuh doh belong on we side of de fence. But yuh know wah i eh vex. Daz dem loss, not my fault dat i is ah top breed. If was ah dog show i wuda get de blue ribbon.
Up to now it have people asking me wha i is --- I is ah product of years of love in dis land we call Trinidad & Tobago.
Time for we to move away from de dotishness of we and dem. Dat sh it can't fly or will ever fly round me.
So when people want to think that dey go treat me a certain way because of meh skin colour or meh hair texture yuh know what i does do --- Stand tall and proud move like i own dis MFing joint. Yuh know why ? Cuz i am beyond dey little minds, i have a greater understanding of life and how i should treat my fellow man/woman.
I doh care if yuh could trace yuh lineage back to India or China or Africa. If yuh doh have love in yuh heart for another den yuh eh love yuh self.
It all well and good to know whey yuh come from, but it better to know whey yuh going.
Ah know i going on long but let meh leave allyuh with dis question.
Yuh drowing can't seem to stay afloat can't hold out much longer...going under.... start to sink deeper and deeper. Suddenly a hand reaches out and pulls you to the surface. You hold on for your life. Did you care at that time if that hand was black white or yellow ?

Don, son of Shakka

Isn't it strange that in the Caribbean we talk openly about racism, that of blacks and whites, but very little if any about blacks and indians.
I was 18 years old and just out of High School. I had a honda 50 motor bike that my uncle gave me. I was a " pum pum hunter"
One day "Barbara" my 19 year old indian girlfriend told me she was pregnant, all kind of thoughts hit my a$$, going to be a father, probably have to run away from home...
A week later her mother told me the child wasn't mine and I should leave her daughter alone, she just told me the child belong to the son of the Maragh family. "Barbara" never spoke to me again.
We lived three miles apart I saw her all through the pregnancy, I tried to talk to her, but she always turned away. After the child was born I went to see her and was chased away by the Singh and the Maragh families.
Well, a week later I was back but "Barbara" and the child was gone, there was a little war I was arrested, later set free.
A year or so later her sister told me the child was mine but I don't know the ways of indians, that was my first introduction to racism, I never say that boy and "Barbara" again, he is a man now.
I've been in a few other relationships with indian girls, they all ended because I was never commited, haven't gotten over my first experience.

The racism between blacks and indians isn't about superiority or minority or colour, it's an invisible cultural fence that says, you keep yours I'll keep mine, or I don't want it the indian way and you don't want it the black way.
It's here in Jamaica too, not loud but it deh yah to.

trinitrish

I have to say that i've experienced racial slurs all thru my life. Sometimes it does really piss me off but most times...I just doh bother because we all have to eat, sh1t, sleep, recreate etc.

I think...racial tension was a lot more prominent in years gone by as compared to today. Yes..many Indian families don't want they children romantically involved with africans. Iv'e heard africans say things about indians. I know hindu families who will not allow their children to marry any other relgion and vice versa. I lost the love of my life because his parents were catholic and they thought I was muslim so he have to marry a catholic girl. I was not allowed in a club because I wasn't white and I heard white folks call indians name. But now, young people are stepping away from these traditions of their family and becoming and owning their decisions. Interracial relationships seem more prominent now. Many children have more than one bloodline running in they veins.
I myself am mixed. I have all kinda races in my family. African, Indian, Chinee, White, Spanish. So... I really doh feel any superiority or inferiority to anybody. To change this culture...we need to change our mentalities and stop being so selfish. We all under the human race.

Â¡Keisha!

I have not lived in Trinidad for a few years now but I know for sure that there is a race problem. I was not aware of it when I lived there because I was so young and oblivious but I noticed on my visits back(as I got older and more aware) just how serious it really is. I remember my aunt used to live in an Indian neighborhood(some where south of Pos, I cant remember exactly) but once my uncle's car would pull up it seem like all eyes on us, and I remember my aunt saying that the other kids would not play with my cousins so they kept them inside most of the time. It's not just Indians though, I have heard a couple of Trinis say derogatory things about Indians and they thinks just because is Blacks that it's ok. I really don't like things like that, My husband is white so I get it(racism)from all sides and it"s not right. We all bleed the same color so what's the problem?

And yes there are other races in Trinidad and Tobago but let's be real the most tension is between the Blacks and Indians.

curious!

Great testimonies thus far!

I do not think we have a serious race issue in T&T! There may be a few instance where interacial couples have to to go through skin and teeth to be together and besides Sat Maharaj point of his daughter is to never marry a "Black man" - is only because he's afraid he'll be jealous of his cute "dougla grandchildren"

Maybe ages ago we had a real issue - but I hardly think it is so now! Remember when the banks frontline staff were all light skinned - now there is every shade from caramel to chocolate there to greet you.
two entirely different

Trinisoccer

Not really nah..Is just the Jamaicans was faster than we boys, but we go get them next time.

Jouvert

I think there is a race problem and I think it is total nonsense. I am not sure where the rift began but it is high time it was stopped. In a place as diverse as Trinidad and Tobago people talking race? Please eh! It is bad enough that there is a widening social gap, we have to deal with this race nonsense on top of that? What happened to the country where every creed and race finds an equal place? Must we import EVERYTHING from "away"?

Hmmmmmm

It is not a serious serious problem from my point of view. Some people make jokes about it like "Way d Chinease taking over St.James" etc.

There was a front page story about it but I can't remember it though.

In Trinidad I have always said they are many different types of people and that is what makes it such a great land.

The Indians-know what it is like to be a hardworker and that is why so many indians have such theri own businesses and big businesses,

The Chinease-are heard wokers some open their own shops and some work on Mannig house

The White-Rule basically everything in Trinidad. Movie Towne,WestMall LongCircluar mall.

The Africans I am sorry to say is the one race that causes the most trouble.(Not all though there are still ALOT of decent people). When you see someone arrested it isn't a Chinse or hardly an Indian.Not a white it is usually an African or I should say of African decent.

If you check International School Of Port of Spain's it shocks alot of people how many different kinds of people live in Triniadad.

American

Argentinean

Austrian

Australian

Belgian

Brazilian

Barbadian

British

Canadian
Chilean
Columbian
Danish

Dominican Republic
Dutch
French
Germans

Honduran
Indian

Italians

Indonesian

Japanese

Koreans

Norwegian

South African

Spanish

Salvadorans

Trinidadian

Venezuelan

Mexicans

Pakistani
Uruguayan

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