*wiggles side to side* Yup :-) What he said.
As for racism in Trinidad, hell yeah. Sadly it is present. And in this multi ethnic island, it isn't just White against non-white. it is White against non-white, Indians against Blacks, Blacks against Indians,Chinese against Blacks /Indians etc. And then within Indians, there is discrimination against the dark skinned indians by the light skinned indians. You see there are various types of Discrimination that exists in each 'mother' country and culture...so as many of those also exist in the relevant diaspora in Trinidad. This discrimination between the Brahmins and other 'castes' exists in India, and it is practiced to varying degrees in Trinidad as well. There is also something different, which is Class Discrimination as well, where with such a small society the Well off tend to get along with each other regardless of race. You have to do business with the wealthy black businessman, you have to do business with the White businessman.At some level there is parity, even if there is still an undercurrent or an awareness of difference. The island is , like most banana republics, also about Who knows you. White, black, indian etc. if you aren't known you aren't going to get things done. This might have its root into another type of discrimination, which is Political Party. There are two main parties, each of which have their base in a different ethnic group - Africans or Indians. A joke, which has truth to it, is to get a job you need to have a Party Card. So there is another level of discrimination there too. So in this tiny tiny island of 1.3 million people, there are several levels of social stratification and segregation...but there is also a lot of integration. And I would say there is more integration than segregation as a whole. The fact is that there simply is NOT enough space for every group to have its own 'place' or area. There is a constant mixing and mingling for social, business...and sexual reasons. The ironic thing, as well, is that aside from Indians and Africans, every single other race in Trinidad is a minority. Yet it is these minorities that tend to discriminate against the majority. The minorities who try to maintain 'pure' bloodlines are also now experiencing genetic breakdown and have kids with several learning disabilities, deformities etc. I'm sure it will all be quite intriguing to an anthropologist. 2008/10/13 Judah McAuley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > It depends on the time period you are talking about. Irish, Polish, > German and Romanian/Gypsy groups have all had their time in the > racism-receiving spotlight. As have the Chinese and Japanese. > > Racism isn't a constant thing. That is good as it means that we can > hopefully make it go away. Religious hate is the same way. People > railing again "Papists" have largely gone the way of the dodo (though > certainly not entirely). > > The objective of things like affirmative action are to try and level > the playing field for groups that have been being discriminated on in > the recent past with the hopes that a more level playing field will > integrate them into what are considered norms of society and > fear/anger toward those groups will gradually pass. > > Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:274020 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
