Abstract
In order to understand how this generation performs or signals their ethno-racial identity and class status to others, Lorick-Wilmot explores the ways being American-born and raised also influences how the MSGCIs “move through the world” and navigate intimate social spaces that are both similar to other middle class people in the United States (both whites and African Americans) and nuanced because of their Caribbean ethnicity, gender and middle class identity projects. Themes and topics discussed in the chapter include gender roles and sexuality (including homosexuality and hetero-normativity), mate selection and (intra- and inter-racial) marriage, religion and cultural traditions, symbolic expressions of Caribbean ethnicity and black racial identity, and the trappings of a middle class lifestyle, including the emotional and financial costs of conspicuous consumption.
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Notes
- 1.
These same beliefs and views are also observable in several nations in Africa (e.g., Uganda) where there was a strong European colonial power that influenced gender conceptualization and ideals around sexuality too.
- 2.
The celebration of Diwali is the Hindu festival of Lights. Celebrated in October or November of each year, it marks the last harvest before the winter. It is considered one of the most important holidays for Indians across the world. Celebrating by lighting clay lamps, setting off fireworks, flowers, and so on, Hindus seek the divine blessing of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, for the light and protection from darkness and for financial prosperity in the new year.
- 3.
In his article “How the Poor Became Black: The Racialization of American Poverty in the Mass Media,” Martin Gilens analyzed media trends between the 1950s and the 1990s and found the media’s tendency to associate blacks with the cultural model of “undeserving poor,” which both reflects and reifies the stereotype that blacks are lazy and therefore should be considered unsympathetic. His research also found that media images and news stories helped shape, especially whites’ perceptions about the composition of the poor, their concerns and the plausibility of solutions, particularly if it would be considered futile to help a group that is lazy and makes poor choices.
- 4.
Founded in 1938 during the Depression, Jack and Jill is a prestigious social organization for black middle class children. Back then, Jack and Jill’s activities emphasized helping black middle class children better fit into white America. In the last three decades, however, the national organization underwent a rebranding strategy to reflect the isolation felt by many middle class blacks living in predominantly white suburbs. Instead of emphasizing the need for black children assimilate into white culture, Jack and Jill seeks to instill a sense of ethnic pride and racial identity in suburban black children. See Lawrence Otis Graham’s Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class (1999).
- 5.
“Doing Race” is a key conceptual framework from Hazel Rose Markus and Paula Moya’s (2010) book Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century where the authors focus on race and ethnicity in everyday life. Authors argue that everyday activities such as going to school and work, renting an apartment or buying a house, attending religious services, and going to the doctor are influenced by assumptions about who counts, whom to trust, whom to care about, whom to include, and why.
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Lorick-Wilmot, Y.S. (2018). From Lessons Learned to Real-life Performances of Cultural Capital and Habitus. In: Stories of Identity among Black, Middle Class, Second Generation Caribbeans. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62208-8_6
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