West Indian Immigrants: A Black Success Story?

3. Three Explanations for the Differences Between West Indians and African Americans

• Chapter 3 • Three Explanations for the Difference Between West Indians and African Americans Having demonstrated that even those West Indian immigrants with the same skills, family responsibilities, and residential location as African Americans do better in the labor market than African Americans, the narrative now takes up the question of why. As pointed out earlier, three types of explanations have been offered: those that emphasize culture, those that emphasize selectivity, and those that emphasize white favoritism. Although they are presented here sequentially , they are not mutually exclusive; one, two, or all three of these explanations may be correct. The Cultural Superiority Hypothesis The cultural superiority hypothesis comes in two versions: one is primarily historical, the other entirely contemporary. The historical argument rests on Thomas Sowell’s claim that Caribbean black slaves had several advantages over American black slaves (Sowell 1975, 1978b, 1981, 1983). They had more chances for rebellion and escape and more opportunities to grow and sell food. Because of their large numbers, both during and after emancipation, Caribbean blacks had greater access to occupations requiring skill and responsibility. These conditions taught them diligence, self-control, and future orientation, whereas conditions in the United States produced just the opposite characteristics in American blacks. 49 The contemporary argument emphasizes only the demographic difference . W. A. Domingo (1925, 347–48) explains: “Forming a racial majority in their own countries and not being accustomed to discrimination expressly felt as racial, they rebel against the ‘color line’ as they find it in America.” In other words, because blacks predominate in the West Indies, whites cannot monopolize all the occupations requiring skill and responsibility. Note that both versions emphasize the racial composition of the population, but for Sowell past matters more than present. In addition, Sowell’s version is multifaceted: he considers demographic composition to be one of several reasons for the West Indian advantage. The Historical Arguments of Thomas Sowell West Indians: Sowell’s Positive Story As indicated in chapter 1, Sowell (1975, 1978b, 1981, 1983) presents a two-sided coin: a West Indian positive story and an African American negative story. West Indians’ upward mobility results from their diligence, self-control, and future orientation . One source of these traits is their history as rebellious slaves. Several factors contributed to making revolt and escape more common in the Islands than in the States. Because the white population was small, escaped slaves were less easily discovered. The jungle and mountain terrain provided food and facilitated concealment. West Indian blacks and whites were equally ignorant of that terrain. Island winters were not severe. In the American South, on the other hand, long-term subsistence in the wild was extremely difficult. Securing food and staying warm were major problems. The mechanisms through which southern plantation owners discouraged escape included a deliberate policy of keeping slaves ignorant and of meeting their food and clothing needs. Sowell (1981, 187) cites the historian Herbert Gutman’s description of how owners thought they should treat slaves: “Create in him a habit of perfect dependence on you” and “prevent him from learning to take care of himself.” To this end, each week the master or his agent distributed food rations. In contrast, Caribbean slave owners gave their chattel the time and space to engage in subsistence agriculture—the so-called provision ground system. Sowell attributes this policy to the monoculture of the Islands and to their very large slave populations, which left no hands available for food production. Growing and marketing food for both blacks and whites became the task of slaves and free blacks. As for regional differences in the position of free blacks, in both regions some slaves were manumitted, and thus a class of “free persons 50 West Indian Immigrants of color” gradually arose. However, the economic status of free blacks was higher in the Islands. Sowell attributes this to regional differences in racial composition. With no white working class, there were simply not enough whites to fill all the skilled and supervisory posts generated by the economy. As a result, more free persons of color—and later blacks in general—secured desirable jobs in the Caribbean than was possible for free blacks in the United States. Sowell contends that the attitudinal and behavioral consequences of these two slave systems were very different. Caribbean blacks responded to their economic autonomy and better chance of escape with initiative, diligence, and, perhaps most important, the ability to develop...