Oral Histories

Interviews were conducted between March and September 2023.


“So initially… I would consider myself West Indian back then. And not fully understanding or unpacking what does it mean to be a West Indian…I’m not only from the Caribbean, you know, I am living the Caribbean experience as an African person.”

Dane, 39 Immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago
“So I was grateful that my mother always kept it in me, she was like you are Black…And, of course, that Black is beautiful.”
Ari, 23 
Immigrant from the Dominican Republic

“It’s the only experience I have to draw on. So yeah, it is… Black. And it is, it’s like Black and, because it’s not just Black, right? Because again, when I go home, it’s a Guyanese household. We’re eating Guyanese food.”
Damaly, 35 Immigrant from Guyana
“I’m Black. Like, I think for me, it’s not something, you know, it’s something that I never thought about as being Black…Back home, I was just Trini.”
David, 42 Immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago

“Well, I’ve always known myself as to be Black, but I’ve always been proud of it. And my understanding of what it means to be Black, though, kind of like evolved in a certain way, because back in Haiti, I just knew, okay, I am Black, I am of African descent. And, you know, I’m also Caribbean and all of that. Here, being Black takes a whole other layer, with all the struggles that Black people go through in this country.”

Olivier, 23
Immigrant from Haiti
“It hasn’t always been Black/African American. [It’s] always just been African American. I’m like, I don’t identify as African American. And so like, now like they have the Black/African American, so I will check that…I’ve never been asked my race until I came to the US.”
Trish, 21 Immigrant from The Bahamas

“[I am] Haitian first.”
Edison, 53 
Immigrant from Haiti
“Well Black first, Trinidadian after you know because you are a Black Trinidadian. Back home there were two ethnicities. You have Black and you have Indian. Those are the dominant ethnicities back home. And you always compare. You always reflect on yourself as Black.” 

Gerad, 57 and
Gail, 54 
Immigrants from Trinidad and Tobago
“…yes I am Black, but not African American. I want to still hold on to who I am and who my people are.”
Tyrone, 28
Immigrant from Jamaica