Racial States in the Post-Emancipation Caribbean

Abstract

Across this region the contemporary construction of multiracial nationalisms belies the lived dynamics of coherent, well-understood, highly structured hierarchies of skin colour that constitute contemporary racial Caribbeanization. Racism in the post-emancipation Caribbean is ‘an iniquitous protean monster’, a living, dynamic social force (Premdas, 1995). This and subsequent chapters will draw on a variety of island experiences and their nationalist projects in examining the longevity of processes of racialization in the Caribbean. In Cuba, for example, the power of cubanidad, the inclusive multiracial Cuban nationalism which recognized the centrality of blackness as a depoliticized form, has been key to mitigating the intensification of racisms that have been experienced in other post-communist and post-colonial contexts. Even here the reinscription of new racisms is evident as neoliberal markets replace state activity. This chapter focuses on the four most populous Caribbean states, which illustrate a set of highly differentiated positionings of race and the nation, privileging aspirational whiteness (Puerto Rico), inclusive blackness (Haiti), anti-blackness (Dominican Republic) or post-racial ideologies (Cuba). This chapter does not seek to provide a history of post-slavery migration; its focus is on the intersections, operations and workings of post-slavery racial states.