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Tyler Parramore is a third-year finance major and
English minor. He hopes to pursue
a field in constitutional law upon graduation from UF.
From tourists isolated on
picturesque beaches to drug rings based on family and ethnic ties, the Caribbean is a racially and ethnically segregated
area. Over the last century, outside observers associated the Caribbean with marginal activity because of the
many questionable practices that occur in the region, ranging from
offshore banking to prostitution.
Many of these perceptions can be caused by the preconceived
notions of external observers.
However, Caribbean peoples’
concessions to ethnically segregate the region perhaps sealed the fate of
the its disagreeable characterization.
Each of the region’s main industries (tourism, offshore banking,
and drug trafficking) provide evidence of racial differences contributing
to morally questionable, if not illegal, activity. The isolation of the different
ethnicities acting in the Caribbean
drives many to perceive the region’s people and activities as unpleasant.
American paternalism in the early Twentieth Century provided groundwork
for race and ethnicity’s role in the dubious characterization of the
Caribbean. United States Marine
Corps occupation, originally aimed at helping several Caribbean
nations become “first-class black man’s countries,” ultimately segregated
ethnicities within various countries. In Haiti and the Dominican Republic,
Marines treated the native cacos
and gavilleros brutally. They justified their actions by stating
they were “teaching a lesson” to dangerous insurgents and protecting “good
citizens.” The violent activity and racial characterization
of “good” and “bad” citizens led to ethnic separation Haiti and
the Dominican Republic.
Meanwhile, Americans in the Caribbean during this period fought off
their ultimate fear: that of “going native.” The term designated integrating oneself
into the native culture, often at first through capture followed by
participating in religious practices, marriage, and even learning the
native language. “Going native” became
synonymous with losing part of one’s whiteness or American identity and
succumbing to the “uncivilized” practices, such as voodoo, often
associated with Caribbean
ethnicities. Marines relayed this
almost inhuman image of native Caribbean
cultures back to the United
States. Thus, by dividing Caribbean
nations along ethnic lines and negatively stereotyping native cultures,
the Marine occupation began a century of unpleasant characterization of
the Caribbean.
The institutionalized separation of visitors and citizens in
tourism (the regions largest industry today) contributes heavily to the
negative perception of the region.
Tourists are usually isolated in tourist zones where visitors have
little contact with the rest of the country. However, tourists typically demand
little contact with locals, abetting this separation. As University of California
Professor Amelia Cabezas describes, “the
disparity in the distribution of wealth within the [nations] further exacerbates
the inequitable conditions between hosts and guests.” Most people go on vacation to relax and
to reward themselves, not to feel guilty about visiting an impoverished
area.
Foreigners form opinions of an area based on the perceptions they previously
had prior to arriving and the interactions they have with native people
while they were there. Stemming
from the U.S. Marines’ stereotypes in the early Twentieth Century and
extending to today’s foreign media coverage, reports of Caribbean
inhabitants often “scare tourists away” with news of drug operations and
crime in the region. These stereotypes are then associated
with entire ethnic groups in the Caribbean. Thus, the tourist zones become
self-sufficient enclaves that hardly interact with other areas of the
countries. Tourists, facing
ingrained negative perceptions before they ever set foot on the soil (and
little interaction with most citizens) are often left with interaction
only with those who provide services, shaping their view of Caribbean people and activities.
Two lucrative yet morally
questionable services provided to foreigners, sex tourism and offshore
banking, use ethnicity in different ways to become appealing to customers
while also contributing to the disagreeable perception of the
region. Many foreigners come to
the Caribbean “to indulge in fantasies” and
“engage in behavior [they] would never allow [themselves] to at home.” Many travel to the region seeking dark-skinned
men and women who can give them the “exotic experience”; both men and women tourists seek this
service from both sexes. In some
countries, as much as twenty percent of the hotel industry workforce
report having sexual relations with tourists.
In a different capacity,
ethnic and racial separation in the region has aided the offshore banking
industry. The entire dynamic of
offshore financial institutions is based on secrecy and trust. Many people who use offshore banking
are trying to hide something: criminals laundering money, debtors hiding
from creditors, or corporations hiding from tax collectors. The Caribbean
appeals to investors because of its location, convertibility to the U.S.
dollar, and lax regulations. Caribbean countries quickly open up their borders
to offshore financial institutions because of the local demand of the
U.S. dollar.
However, many Europeans and
Americans only trust their money with people of their same race. After a change to black government
leadership in the Bahamas
in 1973, many banks left the island to avoid “being subjected to rules
generated by a locally elected black government.” Ironically, foreign investors refuse to
deal with the Caribbean people (whom
they perceive as inferior), yet these people provide the venue for their
own illicit behavior. Despite the
double standard, the racial stigma associated with peoples of the Caribbean has played a role in the prominence of
offshore banking.
Perhaps the most vivid example
of ethnicity’s role in the distasteful activity in the Caribbean is the
drug trade. As FIU Professor John Stack,
Jr. writes, “ethnicity is hugely relevant to any discussion of
international drug trafficking because the production, trafficking, and
sale of drugs often take place in ethnic communities within states and
across state boundaries.” Caribbean
drug traffickers create a sense of loyalty within their drug rings based
on a common race, religion, or culture.
Because of the use of these
ethnic loyalties, some entire ethnic groups have been associated with the
drug trade. In Syracuse, New York,
Dominicans, who one judge remarked have been “tempted more than other ethnic
groups by the siren call of the drug trade,” have become synonymous with
drug traffickers. When relationships within and between Caribbean drug rings rely on ethnic bonds,
outsiders are unable to distinguish between the ethnicity and the
activity.
Works Cited
[1] Renda, Mary.
“Moral Breakdown.” Taking
Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of US Imperialism. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. p.133.
[1] Ibid. p.179.
[1] Ibid. p.165.
[1] Fernandez, Nadine. “Back to the Future? Women, Race, and Tourism in
Cuba.” Sun, Sex, and Gold:
Tourism and Sex work in the Caribbean. Ed. Kamala Kempadoo. Rowman and Littlefield, 1999. p.81.
[1] Cabezas, Amelia. “Women’s Work is Never
Done.” Sun, Sex, and Gold:
Tourism and Sex work in the Caribbean. Ed. Kamala Kempadoo. Rowman and Littlefield, 1999. p.96.
[1] Griffith, Ivelaw. “Drugs and Political Economy in a
Global Village.” The Political Economy of Drugs in the
Caribbean. New York: St.
Martin’s Press. p.21.
[1] Pruitt, Deborah, and Suzanne LaFont. “For Love and Money: Sex Tourism
in Jamaica.” Annals of Tourism Research. Annals of Tourism Research, 1995.
p.426.
[1] Cabezas. p.102.
[1] Blum, Jack. “Offshore Money.” Transnational
Crime in the Americas.
Routledge Press, 1999. p.62.
[1] Ibid. p.68.
[1] Stack, John Jr. “Ethnicity, the Nation-state, and
Drug-related Crime in the Emerging New World Order.” The Political Economy of Drugs in the
Caribbean. New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 2000. p.81.
[1] Kleinknecht, William. “The Corporation.” The
New Ethnic Mobs: The Changing Face of Organized Crime in America. The Free Press, 1996. p.256.
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