Nasty Men and Ghetto Girls: Black, Indian, and Caribbean Ethnic Boundaries in the New York City Party Scene

• In Event: 1284 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Migrant Racial/Ethnic Identity

Abstract

This paper examines ethnic boundary drawing between Caribbean Indians, South Asians, and Afro-Caribbeans in New York's party scene. It focuses on how popular culture (forms of music) and expressive culture (dance and modes of dress) are used by first and second generation South Asians, Caribbean Indians, and Afro-West Indians to draw boundaries around authentic Blackness and Indianness and to create, or disavow, pan-ethnic identifications. The paper uses ethnographic and interview data. The paper presents thick descriptions of three popular nightlife scenes: two in the Caribbean Indian ethnic enclave of Richmond Hill and Jamaica, Queens, drawn from my fieldwork; and one in the South Asian desi party scene in Manhattan. Using this data, I illustrate how Caribbean Indians and South Asians come to draw ethnic boundaries between themselves and South Asians based on differences they observe in modes of dress, musical taste, dance styles, and gendered modes of flirtation on the dance floor – which to both sides signal different levels of proximity to and/or distance from idealized ideas about Blackness and Indianness.

Author

• Anjanette Marie Chan Tack, University of Chicago