While in the Bahamas…
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Growing up in the Bahamas, I wasn’t faced with much variety in terms of people’s roots. The vast majority of us were either just Bahamian (in more recent times of course) or from some other country in the Caribbean. Although this may vary from island to island, my island, New Providence, is pretty homogenous in this regard. I'd dare to say that my first time really encountering life outside of the Bahamas was through television. Most of the television programs back home are American and to a lesser extent Canadian. Through watching television and various American movies, I’ve been exposed to different stereotypes about people based on their race. More importantly, I learned about how people of color tended to be viewed by others.
Many Caribbeans will probably tell you that they never really experienced any form a racism in their home country, particularly in comparison to what is shown in the US. For us, it’s a bit of a culture shock to be overlooked for opportunities or accused of negative actions not because we can’t meet the necessary requirements or because we may personally have a track record of performing such acts, but simply because of our skin color. For me personally, I had to remind myself that when I’m in the US, people don’t see a Bahamian flag on my head. They see that I’m black and treat me accordingly until perhaps proven otherwise. This is not to say that just because I’m black I will be treated differently from people of other races, as a matter of fact I’ve felt slighted by fellow black people as well, something I’ll talk about a bit later on. I’m just saying that our blackness is now something to be much more aware of when away from home.
The race relations I saw on television and in movies was further supported by books I read in high school including fiction books and history books.
While in Canada…
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As I mentioned in a previous page on this site, my time in Canada brought a lot of firsts for me. Some of them were good and were simply a part of growing up: booking my own flights, traveling and packing on my own and even shopping for myself. It was also the first time I depended solely on an alarm (other than my mother) to wake me up in the mornings. Other firsts I saw in a less positive light at the time: I was away from my family, I felt that I had lost most of my high school friendships because I left home and I felt ostracized by some of my peers because of where I came from. It was in Canada as well that I was first exposed to people who had different moral values from me. The latter might not seem that bad but honestly, things like people’s not responding to my “Good morning” when I entered a room really drove me up a wall. It was here that I also experienced another culture shock, not really in terms of race, but in terms of the acceptance of a wide range of lifestyles. The Bahamas is a very religious nation. As a matter of fact, it is written in our constitution that we are a Christian nation. With that being said, homosexual relationships are not very well tolerated in my country. It’s not even something we talk about often. The Bahamas has a very heteronormative (a word I first heard in Canada) culture and set of moral and social standards. Needless to say, I was a bit taken aback when I left the Bahamas and came to my school in Canada where homosexuality was not seen as a bad or awkward thing at all.
While in the US…
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Like in Canada, homosexual relationships are much more welcomed in the US than in the Bahamas but by this time I was a bit more accustomed to people being openly homosexual. A new experience I had in the US was the lack of comradery amongst black people. When I was in Canada, it was commonplace that when one black person saw another black person (regardless of whether they knew each other or not) they would hail each other. I was rather astonished (and insulted) when I did the same here and was completely ignored. To me it just supported the stereotype that Canadians are much friendlier than Americans. I also found that for some reason, African-Americans where much fonder of other African-Americans than black people who didn’t have direct roots in the US (e.g. Caribbeans or Africans). I was given the opportunity to delve further into this topic in the Race and Racism class I took at the University of Florida (UF). If you wish to read it, please click here. The Race and Racism class also allowed me to understand life for African-Americans in the US a bit more as we looked through the history of why things are the way they currently are.
On another note, I was able to continue studying French (which I started in Canada) in the US and also do a semester of Spanish here (Intermediate Spanish 1). In these classes (more so for French as I’ve taken many more French classes here than Spanish classes), I was able to improve the languages I’d previously studied but also learn about different cultures in Hispanophone and Francophone parts of the world. I also started to learn Haitian Creole at the university.
Overall impact of my various international experiences…
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In my brief two decades on this earth, I’ve been blessed to experience things people wouldn’t ever think to dream of: be it Pearson College’s One World cultural explosion or even being able to study abroad for 6 years in two different countries only to return home to one of the most beautiful countries in the world. My international experiences, although not always great, have really taken me to a world beyond my own. I’ve learned to be more understanding of others and to be more diplomatic in my speech and actions. I’ve learned to not come to “absolute” conclusions about something or someone without having first lived it or lived with them. I’ve learned that being multilingual bridges many gaps between people and cultures. I’ve learned that these experiences have all shaped me into the global citizen I am today. Most importantly, I’ve learned that regardless of all the ups and downs I’ve had along the way, I wouldn’t change a thing.
