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White Foreigners In Trinidad - Page 7

Oh really? so you call me "ignorant?" Please feel free to tell us what you know about growing up in the cane fields and rice fields of the central and south parts of Trinidad or tell us about your ancestors working in these places which formed one of the backbones of the Trinidad society. Tell us about your ancestors who lived in the barracks or other humble dwellings and who went barefooted on many occasions and who had to fight to rise in the society from these dwellings.

I am not ignorant but speaking from my vantage point. It happens to be the perspective of one living here but from another angle. I happen to have not grown up in the posh elitist places that whites in Trinidad have grown up in and are indeed accustomed to on many occasions.

I find that my comments are 100% correct. No disrespect. Tell me then if whites do not operate with an isolationist viewpoint why then do the majority in Trinidad not seek outside of themselves for relationship purposes others who may not be like they are or in their class bracket?

They operate with a level of isolationism in that regard and that is just one point.

It is a reality that I have seen and witnessed from local whites in Trinidad and have even experienced in their dismissive ways born out of an isolationist mindiset that many have (though there are the exceptions of course).

Locals who have grown up in harsh circumstances at times DESERVE to be respected by outsiders because they fought through circumstances that tried to put them down and they do not deserve an outsider putting them down as well.

Such should not be accepted or tolerated because that is what Locals in Trinidad do not deserve. Foreigners deserve to be respected YES but even more locals also deserve to be respected because WE live in this country but a foreigner can go back to their homeland any time they are finished "touring" through Trinidad. We are not Tourists but citizens with RIGHTS and no outside individual deserves to put us down in the RIGHTS that we as Trinidadians rightfully have.

I talk from experience having had foreigners disrespect me even though I did not disrespect them in the past and should I have liked it or accepted it? NO and neither should any Trinidadian accept such either. Respect is both mutual but it is also Reciprocal in the end.

Edited: IToldYou on 23rd Jun, 2012 - 2:54am

Trinidad Foreigners White

First of all, I didn't call you ignorant. I don't mind a good debate but I would appreciate if you could please read my posts properly. I said your comments were quite ignorant, not you and I stand by it. I probably know about rice and cane fields just as much as you probably know about your local whites brothers and sisters.

I am not saying all local whites are "saints" but I'm tired of the stigma attached to our ethnicity. We're Trinis just like everyone else and my ancestors have done a lot for this country. Local whites are not different. Some wish to to make us different but we're not. We want to work and live in peace just like the rest of society.

If you are an actor, is there a good chance that you may find a suitable marriage companion from the same profession? And simply because you see and work with actresses every day. Local whites just like ANY other people, they marry those who they lime with or grew up with. Thinking we select people for marriage only based on race and wealth is just another stereotype that we are accustom hearing just like the stereotype that all local whites are rich.

I agree that everyone needs to be respected but I don't agree a person should be respected more just because they are locals. I think it sends the wrong message.

White Foreigners In Trinidad Caribbean / Tobago & Trinidad

1. Actually, I know enough to know that what I speak is in fact the TRUTH again from my vantage point and I also Stand by what I say also as well. Are you saying that because of who I am that I cannot read a post properly? It is sad that you claim that I know little about local whites here (not really) but what is even more sadder is that you know very little about the majority of the people here who are not white experientially of course.

2. If the whites in Trinidad are so much my "brothers and sisters" (as you claim when experience shows otherwise) then why then do you use the argument of profession when it comes to relationship connection? What does that have to do with anything?

A good person is more than beyond their professional class that they belong to. You have only proven my point about isolationism in that the argument about profession is being used.

You have said that the local whites marry/connect with whom they "lime with" or "grow up with" and certainly that of course would be fellow white people like themselves on many occasions and this again has proven my point about isolationism. It is an excuse that does not hold much water or weight I am afraid. What you are saying is that the local whites then prefer to lime with or grow up with those like themselves who are white showing yet again how isolated from the rest of the society they generally are.

It shows that they have not broken out of the bracket of association that they are normally accustomed to because of a mentality that keeps them boxed in from the rest of the society.

Tell me then what makes an Indian man or an African man who lives in a rural district in a quaint rural home less good compared to someone who lives in a posh residential community in Trinidad? The problem is that the isolationist mentality of whites causes them not to interact regularly with people in these communities. IT IS A FACT because somehow they associate in their minds RURAL= NOT COMPLETELY QUALIFIED FOR MY ASSOCIATION or even worthy of being held in suspicion.

I happen to be from one of these very rural communities and I guarantee you that not one of these local white girls would even be interested in me because they class me in a different bracket with themselves. Such classism comes out of an isolationist and at times an elitist viewpoint many times. Trust me they won't even tell you "Hello" and many rural people regularly complain about this. Why? Because they experience it that's why. I think if you are tired of hearing these things then the reason why these things are being heard is because that whites have no one else to blame for these complaints but themselves that ALL stem from an isolationist and classist mentality and attitude as a whole.

It is a TRUTH that must certainly be faced. Though, I will readily admit not all are like this of course.

3. Your ancestors may have done their share for Trinidad but the fact is that the real heroes have always been the background people who had to work for whites in Trinidad and Tobago cleaning their yards and doing menial labor, etc. Tell me why should not the whites in this country honor them and respect them when of course they definitely do not by virtue of their lack of interaction with the successive generations of these ancestral heroes?

4. Again you talk and say we locals do not deserve more respect because you do not understand the vantage point I am coming from which is an ancestral vantage point where the sweat and tears of those background rural people (who at times had to work for whites) brought Trinidad to where it is today. Yes several whites contributed but major contributions came from those rural community heroes who endured many forms of disrespect and rose above it.

You are absolutely RIGHT to say that you don't know about what the rice and cane fields symbolically mean. These are elements that have been the bedrock of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago in its formative years. The citizenry who bear the history of this foundation deserve to be respected. No outsider should disrespect the citizenry here at all. They are only manifesting their complete ignorance of the foundational history of sacrifice that is embedded in the citizenry here in Trinidad and Tobago today.

It appears your comments breeds the major issue of ignorance of these facts altogether.

Plus your comments seemed to even to want to DISCOUNT the rural ancestral contributions of those who formed the bedrock of the society that you now claim to live in.

Next time please READ and UNDERSTAND the vantage point I am coming from. It is because of this lack of understanding from local whites that:

A. Many White people who are local do not intermingle with others of different ethnic groups for relationship purposes.

B. Many White people who are local do not intermingle with others from rural communities in Trinidad on many occasions.

These are facts that STILL continue on even till this day and it is Truth that cannot be denied.

Edited: IToldYou on 24th Jun, 2012 - 3:09am

Page 7 Trinidad Foreigners White

To keep this on Topic please note that this Thread is:

"White Foreigners In Trinidad"

As opposed to an other Topic which is:

"Trinidad Syrians And Local "Whites""

You are mixing up the two.

Trinidad Foreigners White

Name: Claire
Country:

Comments: I've experienced first hand from observing Trinis interaction with white foreigners. They treat them differently and give them a level of importance than someone who is not a white foregoing. For instance some from the USA that is white will get a better reception than someone from the USA that is black. This is also true for other countries like lets say Venezuela. Venezuelans aren't given the level of importance as a white foreigner from the USA but this may also have to do with the language issues.

White Foreigners In Trinidad

Claire I don't think it has anything to do with language issues. The reason in my view is because people associate "white" foreigners (Americans, Canadians and British) with money.

Rather off topic, but...
Itoldyou, I replied to your thread here: Source 9

White Foreigners Trinidad - Page 7

Regardless as to whether there are local whites or foreign whites the point is that they both are white at the end of the day and that is a clearly an unmixed viewpoint that will never be mixed up at all.

I agree that foreign whites have been known to get better treatment here having seen this also firsthand myself though I did meet black foreigners from the USA but did not appreciate at least comments from one who was elderly who said that Trinidad and Tobago was the same like all other Caribbean countries and that is not true because every Caribbean country has its own unique identity that makes it separate from the rest. Therefore we cannot be bunched in with other islands or places in the Caribbean. That is just plain wrong.

Essentially local people who are nonwhite because of their viewpoints about those who are white tend to place these people on a higher platform in comparison to the other members they are accustomed to in their society. It is a fascination that they have with foreign white people that I have aforementioned because they associate foreign whites with first-world living.

This comes from the lack of regularly being exposed to white people. For example where I live we are not regularly exposed to foreign white people except what we see in the television media but when some do see or encounter foreign whites it is like some in my area put these people on a superspecial pedestal even going out of their way to redecorate their homes or buy special food items when they come over just to treat them well. However they will not be doing the same for their own local people in the society.

I have noticed that even some will even act in a very sheepish manner even going overboard at times to impress foreign white people in conversations with them because of how they see them in their minds. I however think differently.

This is why going back to my unmixed point I state emphatically that I will be welcoming to any foreign white person but I will not tolerate a foreign white person or any foreigner for that matter coming here and disrespecting the local people here. I will kindly tell them that since they found an entrance into this country that they can also take an exit out of it as well.

Now lest someone think that I am anti-white or anti-foreign whites let me say three things:

1. I happen to have family who have married foreign white people. I have a cousin who married a German sea captain and who lives in Costa Rica. I also have a cousin who married a white woman and they live in Canada.

2. I happen to have a foreign white girlfriend from Europe.

3. I am strong advocate for Afro, Indo and Asian Trinidadian men that if they want to have a white girlfriend or partner that they look elsewhere outside of their own country to foreign countries because having seen the mentality of local white ladies here it can be totally unappealing at times especially with how low they see Rural Afro, Indo, and Asian Trinidadian men in their own local society at times which has developed this isolationist way about them which can be in fact a tough wall to climb over. Therefore, I would recommend going outside if one wants a white lady for relationship purposes on a whole.

Just do not pick one who will disrespect you in your own land.



Edited: IToldYou on 13th Jul, 2012 - 4:32pm

White Foreigners Trinidad Trinidad & Tobago / Caribbean - Page 7

Itoldyou:

Brother this reminds me when white people say "I'm not racist, I have a black friend"

So all that talk about white people and you have a white girlfriend? It's funny eh because some of the Afro-Trinidadians I know who are in relationships with white women or seek for one also seem to be overly critical of white people but at the same time holding hands with one. It's ironic.

For me white foreigners are the same as any other people. The only thing that makes me vex about them is the fact that real estate is ridiculously expensive because of them (certain areas). Other than that, pale, skinny and bleached hair ladies cannot be compared in beauty with my ladies of preference (sistas). It's hard for some men to admit eh but some just go out with white women because they see it as a "trophy girlfriend".