Growing up in the U.S of A we all learn what the stereotypes of the major ethnic groups that make up this melting pot are. Blacks love fried chicken. White dudes have teeny weeny weenies. Asians are great in math etc, etc.
But growing up in a Caribbean household, you also learn a few others that the average American isn’t privy to. Here are my top two:
Haitians are Dirty People.
Growing up I constantly heard how Haitians were dirty, carried disease, ate cats & dogs and couldn’t dress for shit. I remembering listening to the older kids on the block spin tales about seeing a dog’s hide hanging on a Haitian family’s clothesline. Or that they brought AIDS to the States. One girl said her father would disown her if she ever dated a Haitian guy. As a clueless elementary school kid, I believed it all and scorned the whole group of people though I didn’t personally know any Haitian kids.
When I got to high school I was surrounded by Haitians and couldn’t figure out where these things came from. I kept my eyes peeled but damn it, nothing I learned as a kid jibed with my personal experiences as a high schooler. So I said fuck it and starting dating a string cute, clean & very well dressed Haitian dudes (well, Haitian-American dudes to be accurate. I don’t date straight from yard, but that’s another story).
The other big myth is:
Jamaicans Are Crazy
I didn’t hear this one ’til I was a little older but I quickly learned that many Jamaicans are straight up nuts. That they have absolutly NO behavior. Quick to cut a brother (on the street or in the office, doesn’t matter) or bash the next gyal’s head in with a full bottle of ginger Shandy before heading back in the club to Signal de Plane. And stush!? [suck teet] Is for dem the term invent yes?
Wish I could say this stereotype was debunked with a few great personal experiences but no such luck. I’m gonna have to be the cultural racist on this one and say I find this to be pretty damn true. Except for my yardie girlfriend C, she’s a pretty level-headed chick. Oh, and what’s her name from my old job. She was cool peeps. And of course, my rasta homegirl from Kingston. She’s hella fun to hang with. Ok, maybe this one don’t hold so much water either.
These are only two of many stereotypes that exist. Every island, every racial group on that island suffers from pre-conceived notions. I’m not surprised at the intra-cultural issues the West Indian community faces. Every group on this earth, be it ethnic, religious, cultural or what have you deals with similar issues. I think it’s perfectly natural and incredibly human to think this way, so long as you treat me with courtesy and respect when we deal, then who cares what you think about me and my peoples?
So mutter under your breath if you like ’bout dem stchupidee GT gyals. Me na cyare. So long as you don’t come outta you face to MY face with that madness, then we all good.
What are some of the Caribbean cultural stereotypes you’ve heard? Did they come from friends or family or observation? Do you believe them or has life taught you otherwise? Tell me nuh?!
What ignorant minds…Jamaicans and Haitians literary come from the same cloth. Check your history books. Better yet, check the slave records. Jamaicans and Haitians come from the same part of Africa. After selling us to slave traders, families were torn apart, the slave traders would sell an entire family to different planation owner's all over the carribbean. The father at one island, let's say Haiti then sell the mother in Jamaica then sell the siblings in Cuba, or some other island or even the United States. You all sound just as crazy as Pat Roberston.