In Black-Hispanic Debate, West Indians Side With Hispanics
News Feature, Louis E.V. Nevaer,
Pacific News Service, Dec 04, 2003
Blacks with roots in the West Indies are pulling away from an “African American” identity. They’re being helped by neighborhoods — including black neighborhoods — that see them as hard workers because they are new immigrants, not because they are black.
“I see myself as somewhere in-between,” says U.S.-born Pat White, 43, a law office administrator whose parents came from the Caribbean. “I don’t see myself as ‘African American,’ even though when people see me, they see a black woman. I’m Jamaican, and an American who is ‘black,’ but I feel uncomfortable with the ‘African American’ label.”