Comments on: When being black has its advantages

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:54:29 +0000

Deborah, do you keep your time in Sabana Grande limited to daylight?

In the evening, you feel very safe in Los Palos Grandes, Altamira, La Castenella area? What are your boundaries in the evening?

Are there many people walking around at night in those areas?

When I lived in Santa Monica, a middle class neighborhood, it was DESERTED at night, very few on the streets to deserted.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:53:13 +0000

I think there’s just a huge variation in the way that we refer to people of color. The way I looked at it while in the states is that I was black, not African-American. African-American describes culture/ethnicity and not race. So, someone could be in the Cuban ethnicity, but of the black race. Now, that’s just the way it made sense to me, but I know that many people categorize differently. I have had African-Americans become upset when I told them I didn’t consider myself part of that ethnicity, but I think I would be doing them a disservice to claim to be part of culture with which I didn’t identify. Now, being abroad is very different. In Venezuela, anyone black is considered negrito/negrita. There are black Ecuadorians, Colombians, Venezuelans, Trinidadians, etc. For the most part, we’re all just put into one group. Then there are the people who are not white/European looking and they really make up the majority. I wouldn’t even know which race they would labeled. In Cuba, I know they’re called mulattoes. It’s just a big mess, if you ask me. If we stop using the race labels, life would be much easier

By: Kiki

Kiki — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 21:33:16 +0000

This is off the topic, but I have heard of Europeans saying of African Americans, “You are American so it’s different (meaning not from Africa so it’s ok).” Also a friend of mine (who is black) traveled to S. Afr and stayed in the ritzy part of J’burg; when whites realized that she was American they actually said, “You’re different, your American so u are ok.” That may not be the case in Venezuela, but u see what we hv to deal with. Also, as I stated on my blog, in Switzerland blacks are anyone with dark skin, incl Sri Lankans. That was different for me, but the truth is their skin is darker than mine so they, like me are black. But being American, I hv considered black ppl to be of African descent, incl Caribbeans. I remember when I was around 8 or 9 years old and an Afr Amer clld a Cuban (who had dark skin black) a black man, the Cuban got upset and stated that he was not black, but Cuban. At that age not being aware of the world, I thought, “He’s black, what is he talking about!”
In America, I referred to myself as Afr Amer and black, but in Swiss I always hv to catch myself and just say black. B/c the term Afr Amer is not used here.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:01:42 +0000

I’m surprised that you have the experience of people telling you you’re not black. I have had my head almost chopped off by African-Americans when I try to point out the cultural differences between Caribbeans and African-Americans. From what I’ve seen, Venezuelans don’t really slice up black people into different groups. It appears that lighter-skinned Venezuelans have accepted that there are Venezuelans are of all shades. I don’t know if it’s easier for black Venezuelans to succeed professionally than in other places, but there doesn’t appear to be the assumption that they’re all criminals either. For instance, in the poorer areas, you see people of all shades. In the higher income areas, you see fewer blacks. I think that creates a different dynamic than what we see in the US. Does that make sense?

By: Joy Gordon

Joy Gordon — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:00:59 +0000

I hope you do not have a false sense of security. It is obvious by the color of my skin that I am black. However, I frequently hear from both black and white friends that I’m not black because I’m from the islands. Sometimes this is definitely not to my advantage. Whenever I’m told by another black person that I’m not black, I think the message is “you are not one of us.”