What are the experiences of Caribbean immigrants?
In the latest episode of the Tenement Museum's podcast, "How to be American," we look at the experiences of Caribbean immigrants and their past and present in the United States. We talk to Christina Greer, author of Black Ethnics, and Shelley Worrell, a community leader in Flatbush, Brooklyn, whose family moved from Trinidad to New York. They discuss the importance of understanding the diversity of Caribbean immigrants, and of black immigrants more broadly--there is real cultural, religious, economic, generational, and ethnic diversity with what might seem like similar experiences from the outside. This Your Story, Our Story collection features stories of immigrants from Grenada, Trindidad and Tobago, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Barbados, and highlights traditions and personal experiences. In the accompanying video, Greer speaks about the context for different groups of black immigrants arriving in the 20th Century. She notes the imperative to understand the barriers that black immigrants face, and the fact that the last 75 years have, through immigration policy and the arrival of immigrants from African nations, opened the doors to thinking about black, Caribbean, and African identity in a diverse and dynamic way.