African American Immigrants In Soucouyant

The chosen characters to discuss their immigration experience from David Chariandy’s novel Soucouyant, are Adele and Roger and other characters from their generation. The reason for the choice of this generation includes their involvement in the African Caribbean immigration to Canada, and the shown after effects of living there. The effects of immigration of African Caribbean include the oppression, discrimination and misidentification of their ethnicity. Based on the fact of the hierarchy of skin color imposed on the society of the New World; people of dark colored skin are considered the lowest among the population among the immigrants. Beknownst the immigrants of Canada the notation of color hierarchy was set with the notation of
The characters who have immigrated are very thankful of this, and view it as a lucky experience and a chance to have a better life. This is seen throughout many times in the novel when Adele is playing with the tap water as in her early days of her life, she is to use a pump to retrieve water (82). As for Roger, even though he is put through very harsh working conditions as mentioned before he finds that the salary is not bad and still persists to work. In terms of racism itself he doesn't notice when he is wearing his cowboy suit and people laughing at him, while he has a good time smiling at others when he was dancing at the country music tavern
It did not matter what you had, your skin color would determine your status in society. In addition institutions of Canada and large organizations would group ethnic groups based on physical appearance, through this there would be negative stereotypes or stereotypes in general linked to the classification. In the case of what is discussed here, it would be the African Caribbeans, and they would be linked to Jamaicans in general when there were different types of cultures within the Caribbean. It is also noted that the classification of Jamaicans is that they are “violent, irrational, or involved in some way with illicit activities in Canada” (Dwaine 242). When compared to other ethnic groups however they are seen as even less favored as the classification for Asians, whom seen as having the characteristics of being “hardworking, family-oriented, and non-threatening” (244). The formation of status of skin color is also set in place by Enlightenment scholars Hegel and Kant, from highest to lowest: white, yellow, brown, black. (Brown 375) Which then in turn with the grouping of African Caribbeans to the black, due to the physical attributes they were identified as rather than actual cultural and regional origin. Thereby the African Caribbeans were subjected to the worst of discrimination, as being lumped with the lowest tier in