Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Life of A Black American/Jamaican in Fiji

Thoughts of my skin colour and how I would be accepted never really crossed my mind. I think I figured that Peace cOrps wouldn't place me in a place where In would be targeted adverseley because of my skin colour.Then another volunteer in my group brought this up to me.She had been slightly worried since she is Indian and there have been tensions in FIji between Fijian natives and the Indian population there. SInce then I thought that maybe Peace COrps may have a session where they will address those racial concerns.So far though I have just had conversations with a few seasoned volunteers and staff about the topic.From what I gather Fijians mostly think that all Americans are White Europeans. The few that do grasp that AMerica is multi-cultural base their views of Blacks from movies they watch. So inevitably it's based on movies they're going to be familiarized with the n-word.I have been told that Fijians may call me that innocently but they are open enough for me to tell them the true history of the word. So far the "worst" thing I've been called is Black American.I am interested to see though how it goes.
PS Apparently one of the host family's dogs for another volunteer is called n-word.

1 comment:

  1. Seems like you have alot of educating to do. Remaining open and friendly as you are is the best way.

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