r/AskTheCaribbean • u/CompetitiveTart505S Caribbean American • Apr 28 '25

Culture Does racism between Caribbean people disappear in the diaspora

For example growing up I was never under the impression there were conflicts between Indo and Afro Caribbean people, because the Indo Caribbean people I met were all very nice and emphasized that we're all Caribbean.

I also have a Dutch friend who explained that Surinamese people seem pretty united in the Netherlands regardless of race, but this is an outsider looking in of course.

What do you guys think? Does this imply that ethnic tensions are more superficial, or is it really not that significant? Do you all have any contradictory or complementary experiences?

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u/Black_Panamanian Panama 🇵🇦 Apr 28 '25

In my country the white diaspora doesn't leave the country much and when they do they bond with the black one because at the end of the day they have each other's back.

However inside the country usually white people are upper class and they don't have many black friends.

People who are lighter skin or mestizo live in a different region where there aren't many blacks.

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u/CompetitiveTart505S Caribbean American Apr 28 '25

As a person of (Afro) Panamanian descent, I never grew up with white Panamanians, but I was brought around my Mestizo "uncles", whom weren't really related to me but friends of the family.

To be honest I have not seen too many white panamanians, and most panamanians in the diaspora are black. It's very interesting to see that black panamanians are practically the fact of the country

all the way to sports teams and diaspora groups

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u/Black_Panamanian Panama 🇵🇦 Apr 28 '25

I mean Panama has as much if not more indigenous or mestizo people than black

But black people are the talented ones in sports and music so they are the ones you see on tv. They also we're willing to migrate more because they were poorer.

However in Latin America panama is one of the few countries not even Brazil where you see black doctors, lawyers, politicians and so on.

Indigenous people are the ones who live Haitian level of poverty maybe even worse but that's by choice I won't get into it.