Customer Reviews

Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

because a great many of the interview subjects were teachers. I can see how the author would have found interviewing and possibly 'relating' to teachers in a more easygoing natural way. But the presentation of the views of others was not as extensive.

This book gave me some excellent information and probably insight into the experience of the West Indian black immigrant to a society that is predominantly white. Although I have lived and worked in the West Indies, I had not realized that for these people, coming from a society where black people run their own governments and decide on curriculum for students and everything else, in their societies, how difficult it is for them to live in a place where blacks are not a significant group as in the West Indies. I especially had not considered the culture clash between West Indian and American blacks.

The book is highly readable and very informative. The reason I gave this review 3 stars has to do more with what I would consider to be a preponderance of interviews of a population subgroup as opoposed to a general, random survey across the board of West Indian immigrants to New York.


Where are the delivery guys, the letter carriers, the car mechanics..... Or are they under-represented because they could be less articulate? Or is it just a comfort factor for the author to interview people who, although they are from a totally different cultural background, are at least familiar in that they are invovled with the academic? Or is it just easier to find teachers since they work in institutions? Whereas perhaps non-professional West Indians working in hourly wage jobs are difficult to influence to believe that the interview is just that and their privacy would be respected?

The thing is though, a survey, in order to be valid, should contain a representative sample of all the West Indian black immigrants to New York.

Regardless, a potential reader should not be put off by my criticisms. This study is well worth the read. The author has done an excellent job interviewing and interpreting the data from her subjects.

This was a required text for class which turned out to be a good read.

This book was amazing. It was assigned as a reading for a class of mine, and I definitely will be keeping this book past the semester. It is VERY imformative, especially for someone looking to learn more about the different ethnicities of blacks --particulary black Americans and Afro-Caribbean (or West Indian) blacks.