Creating Black Caribbean Identity (New Americans: Recent Immigration and American Society)

Lorick-Wilmot explores the complexities of Black Caribbean ethnic identity by examining the role a community-based organization plays in creating ethnic options for its first-generation Black Caribbean immigrant clients. Her case study particularly focuses on a Caribbean-identified organization's history, culture and climate, and the kinds of resources staff and community leaders provide that, ultimately, supports the maintenance of Caribbean ethnicity and Black ethnic identities and slows the rate of acculturation. Her case study points to the ways ethnic identity formations feed into the American construction of ethnic "others" that, in contradictory ways, empower some Black Caribbean immigrants but also perpetuate racial and ethnic tensions and challenges within the broader African American and Caribbean community.