The Caribbean today is characterized by grave intolerance and mistrust at all levels. According to Zick (2011), “Intolerance threatens the social cohesion of plural and democratic societies. It reflects the extent to which we respect or reject social, ethnic, cultural and religious minorities. It marks out those who are “strange”, “other” or “outsiders”, who are not equal, less worthy. The most visible expression of intolerance and discrimination is prejudice.”
Prejudice has been prevalent in Caribbean societies for hundreds of years. Its most notable appearance in history was during the slavery period and it still exists today. This was the source of racism and classism which both manifested segregation in society. Halcrow (1982) stated “Creoles and newcomers had different holidays and festivals, recreations, eating habits and dress. Even their funeral rites differed” meaning that even though the creole slaves and the newcomers had the same colour, classism existed as both groups had different origins which caused problems. Creoles were born in the Caribbean while the newcomers came from Africa. According to Halcrow, “Even at work, however, language created a problem until a patois developed in each West Indian island”. This simply means that before one common language was developed, people from many different countries were together on the plantations. The reason for this, as posited by Halcrow was that “in practice the work force was normally divided as planters adopted a deliberate policy of buying slaves from different ethnic groups which did not mix freely.” This led to hostility among the enslaved.
In present day Caribbean society classism is more popular than racism. Your address, former institution, job or even your assets determine which class you are in. Fairclough (2016) stated,”He concluded after asking me several questions that I was not good enough for him, simply because I did not own a car. “You have to call taxis?” he asked with a disgusted look on his face.” It can be concluded that immediately she was judged based on whether she drove a car or not and was considered to be lower in society because she did not own one.
-Réal McCarthy
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Intolerance. Mistrust. The Caribbean. 