"The Roots of Caribbean Identity has as its central elements race, place and language. The book presents a movement from a European construction of Caribbean identity towards a more Caribbean construction. The ways in which the identity of the Caribbean region and the identities of the separate islands within the region were shaped are set out in a chronological sequence, starting from the time of the European encounters with the Amerindians and finishing at the end of the nineteenth century."(extrait de la 4ème de couv.).

Professor Knight addresses race, ethnicity, and class in Latin America and the Caribbean, and his conclusions are important for revaluing the history and place of these regions in the evolution of political systems.

Race and biologized conceptions of ethnicity have been potent factors in the making of the Americas. They remain crucial, even if more ambiguously than before. This collection of essays addresses the workings of ethnicity in the Caribbean, a part of the Americas where, from the early days of empire through today’s post-colonial limbo, this phenomenon has arguably remained in the center of public society as well as private life. These analyses of race and nation-building, increasingly significant in today’s world, are widely pertinent to the study of current and international relations. The ten prominent scholars contributing to this book focus on the significance of ethnicity for social structure and national identity in the Caribbean. Their essays span a period from the initial European colonization right through today’s paradoxical balance sheet of decolonization. They deal with the entire region as well as the significance of the diaspora and the continuing impact of metropolitan linkages. The topics addressed vary from the international repercussions of Haiti’s black revolution through the position of French Caribbean békés and the Barbadian ‘redlegs’ to race in revolutionary Cuba; from Puerto Rican dance etiquette through the Latin American and Caribbean identity essay to the discourse of Dominican nationhood; and from a musée imaginaire in Guyane through Jamaica’s post independence culture to the predicament of Dutch Caribbean decolonization. Taken together, these essays provide a rare and extraordinarily rich comparative perspective to the study of ethnicity as a crucial factor shaping both intimate relations and the public and even international dimension of Caribbean societies.

This book identifies and engages with an analysis of racism in the Caribbean region, providing an empirically-based theoretical re-framing of both the racialisation of the globe and evaluation of the prospects for anti-racism and the post-racial.

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 organizationOCOs 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 OC othersOCO 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."