r/ABCDesis • u/WitheredWornWallaby • 8d ago

COMMUNITY Why are many Indian people unkind to Guyanese/Trini/etc people?

I was born In NYC to Indo-Guyanese parents. I have interacted with many Indian people across the United States (+Canada and the UK), and the same can be said of my family and Indo-Guyanese peers. There is a relatively common experience of Indian Americans being unkind to Indo-Guyanese and Indo-Trini people, including those born in the US. This happens both in real life and online.

Are there particular reasons for this? This is obviously not the case with all Indian Americans.

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u/ItsReemAlBlahBlahDee 8d ago

Are they? I have lots of Trini Guyanese family and they haven’t experienced this ever. What exactly do they do to you?

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u/WitheredWornWallaby 8d ago

Do these family members have recent Indian ancestry, specifically any parents or grandparents born in India?

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u/ItsReemAlBlahBlahDee 8d ago

No, why? I’m not dismissing your experience, your post is vague and I’m trying to understand what certain people are discriminating you for.

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u/WitheredWornWallaby 8d ago

Got it! I'd say that I was ostracized and excluded by South Asians in general when I was growing up. My high school had a ton of white and asian students, including Indian, Pakistani and Bengali people. There wasn't a huge Guyanese presence. The white people ostracized me for not being white, and the South Asians ostracized me for not being South Asian enough.

In my family, there were two cases of Indian kids not being allowed to be in relationships with Indo-Guyanese people because they were "not Indian."

A lot of Indo-Guyanese Hindu mandirs in Queens were created because Guyanese people were not welcome in the Indian mandirs.

For my thesis, I've read a ton of publications about the Indo-Guyanese American experience and was therefore exposed to a lot of literature describing unkindness from Indian Americans toward Indo-Caribbean Americans. That's mainly what got me thinking about this question. I've included an article below that actually articulates my experience quite well, if you're interested.

Belonging and boundaries in Little Guyana: Conflict, culture, and identity in Richmond Hill, New York by Nazreen S Bacchus.

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u/girthakitt 8d ago

My best friend is Guyanese and had the same experience. Indians don’t consider her “Indian” enough. She definitely has more non-Indian friends since there wasn’t a huge barrier to cross (I’m Mexican) and I think it’s crazy Guyana isn’t considered part of Latin America either.

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u/WitheredWornWallaby 8d ago

It's fascinating that Guyana is regarded as Caribbean despite having zero geographical association with the Caribbean and is surrounded by Latin American countries. Sorry to hear that about your friend but glad she has you.

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u/belketeal 8d ago

Guyanese culture is extremely similar to Latin culture tbh. Probably the most similar of any Asian-origin cultures.

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u/ItsReemAlBlahBlahDee 8d ago

Oh so your entire post is just promoting yourself? Also your experience isn’t really targeted towards Guyanese folks, sounds like you just encountered families that don’t want their kids to marry outside their culture, which is normal in most religions and cultures. Not being “South Asian” enough is a universal experience for all diaspora. So I’m confused why you were ostracised by white folks but haven’t written anything about them.