"Are you from the Islands?"

[eccentric_kurlz]

"Because your hair looks like people from the Islands."

 

Has anyone ever asked you that? I was in the BSS looking around for some goodies(I didn't need  ), and this woman approaches me politely and asks what my routine is. Her daughter's hair looks like mine, and she's been trying to find products that could work for her. She then asks if she could touch it to see if it feels like her daughter's hair. I didn't mind, especially if I could help her. She tells me her daughter models, and gets hired based on her being a natural. She shows me a few pics, and she has a beautiful head of soft curls and coils(and she was an absolute doll).

She then asks if I'm from the Islands. I say no. She then asks if my family is from the Islands. I say no, not that I'm aware of. She asks if there is ANYONE in my family from the Islands because her daughter's father is, and I have hair that looks like the people in his family. I again say no.

We talk for about 30 minutes(I kid you not), in one of th aisles in the shop. I didn't mind because I really had nowhere to be, and she was really polite.

She again mentions the Islands and says that I have that "island skin, with the small pores and has that island glow". I was like you think I have small pores and glowy skin? I wish! But thanks. We eventually end the conversation, and I go about my business.

I've been asked alot of questions about my background, but never if I was from the Carribbean. I've never associated a certain look with being from the Islands.

I have friends from Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Panama, but I never looked at them and said, "I can tell you're from that region because you look like it."

Maybe I'm slow or something, but I've never really heard of someone looking like they're from the Islands. Is there even such a thing, or was she just generalizing because a few family members just happened to have similar hair/complexion as mine?

[Natural76]

yes, all the time, it flatters me a bit I must admit

[Amneris]

I think what people refer to as an "island" look is a mixed or blended look of being such a multicultural place with African, Indian, Chinese, Lebanese, Spanish, English, Amerindian etc. all mixed together.  All Africans in the Diaspora are mixed, true, but African -Americans tend to have more WASP blood and some American Indian but not necessarily all that other stuff.  I hope this makes sense and no one takes it the wrong way. 

I think each island has its own look.  Different islands got slaves from different African tribes and regions and mixed differently.  I am often recognized as specifically Trini and not anything else.  I can spot other Trinis.  I can spot Jamaicans.  So I don't think there is so much a look of "the islands" as each island has a look.

I kind of see a Jamaican look in you that is hard to describe or define so I can see why someone would ask you that.  Take it as a compliment - Caribbean women are considered to be very beautiful!

[eccentric_kurlz]

Thanks for the replies, ladies.

Take it as a compliment - Caribbean women are considered to be very beautiful!

 

I agree, Amneris.  I didn't take it as an insult or anything. I just never had anyone ask that, or assume that just because of how I look. Specifically, because of my hair. 

[Amneris]

I don't want anyone to take that to mean that American women aren't also beautiful!  That's not my intention!

[spiderlashes5000]

This is just my take but she probably saw someone young with nice looking, natural curly hair (which is quite rare in the US, sadly) and didn't know what to make of it.  Surely, you couldn't be plain old American with that head of nonrelaxed hair...LOL

EC, you do look a like this one particular Haitian woman I knew...but I think that's coincidental.  Black folks have been mixed with so much, in so many ways that it's hard to parcel out one trait from another.  The only major exception is African/Black mixed with Indian (the country of India); that is a common mix in Trinidad and some other Caribbean islands...and you don't see it nearly as comminly in the US.

Just may take on it, though.  But yes, I've been asked if I was Jamaican and just about every other nationality/ethnicity under the sun.  LOL

[Amylee]

I wish people asked me that, because I AM from the Islands (French West Indies).

But instead, I get remarks like "why don't you keep Ramadan ?", because they think for some reason that I'm Arab and a Muslim. Don't know why 

Also, Indian people talk Hindi or their language to me thinking I'm from South Indian.

Weird...

[jazzi]

I get that too...but I am, so I'm not offended.  What does offend is the "you got Indian in your family" or "you got that hair from your Dad's people."

I think people assume you're Caribbean b/c natural hair on a Black woman just ain't common in the states! LOL

[Natakue]

i've gotten that question before but i never thought it was because of my hair. i thought it was from my face. and when i open my mouth, people can tell something's up, although i can't even hear this accent they claim i have.  i can spot haitians pretty well (and i must admit, like spidey, you have a haitian look to you ). i'm not as good with the other islands, though.

[lovelynpink926]

My father is dominican and I am muslim as well so people often play the "Can you guess my race game?" with me but I don't mind at all.

ETA
My mother has a head full of waistlength locks. People always think she's from the islands but she was born in South Philly.

[Amneris]

I wasn't sure if women in the Caribbean wear natural hair that much more than women in the US.  Come to think of it, maybe this is becoming true in recent times, but Caribbean women just as much had good hair notions and addictions to the creamy crack.  But lately when I visit I am seeing a lot of braided and loced and twisted styles and people in headwraps etc.  And there are a lot of Rastas who wear locs.  And I think poorer people can't afford relaxers and so on, and pressing combs have always been a popular option rather than relaxing.  In my own family, I can only think of 3 women who are still relaxed that live in the Caribbean.  Most of the rest of them have gone natural, but often press or keep their hair super-short or tied up a lot because "wild" hair is considered undesirable, and they all get on my case about my hair being too "wild".  

There is still a bias against natural hair, however.  My cousin works for an American pharmaceutical company that runs out of PR so it doesn't have to follow US law, and in her company they have an unofficial policy that you can't have natural hair.  Everyone that has come in with braids or locs has been fired for some other bogus reason.  My cousin would like to stop relaxing but she is scared that she would get fired.  A lot of companies apparently do this... the colonial mentality still dies hard.  

And most Caribbean people living in US/Canada either relax or wear extensions or weaves on top of their natural hair (those are especially popular)  and the older women tend to have jheri curls.  I think there are more non-weaved naturals back home than over here.

[spiderlashes5000]

But that woman probably has never been to the Caribbean and probably wouldn't know a Caribbean person if one jumped up and bit her on the ass.  LOL  She's probably just going by folk lore and myth (remember Sakkeh on NC complained that Miss Jamaica never looks like what the majority of Jamaican women look like). 

[jazzi]

But that woman probably has never been to the Caribbean and probably wouldn't know a Caribbean person if one jumped up and bit her on the ass.  LOL  She's probably just going by folk lore and myth (remember Sakkeh on NC complained that Miss Jamaica never looks like what the majority of Jamaican women look like).  

ITA!  It amazes me how people turn their assumptions into facts!  Half of the people that say xyz wouldn't know shit if they fell in it.

[Amneris]

But that woman probably has never been to the Caribbean and probably wouldn't know a Caribbean person if one jumped up and bit her on the ass.  LOL  She's probably just going by folk lore and myth (remember Sakkeh on NC complained that Miss Jamaica never looks like what the majority of Jamaican women look like). 

LOL, that's true!

[SweetiePie]

Island women and the "multicultural" looking sisters are "considered to be the most beautiful in the world.  I would consider it a complement.  I usually get the "You can't be all Black, you must be mixed with something" from very well meaning yet often somewhat misinformed folks.  I think it can be the familiarity of our beauty from that person's particular homeland.  Everybody wants to claim a beautiful relative. I have Africans that say I look African, Cubans say I look Cuban, African-Americans say I look like I'm from the South    And even Native Americans jump in with their nations.  Most islands are a mix of everything so its common to think, especially with people from the islands that you are one of them. Ain't nobody trying to claim my behind when I look busted with no makeup and a bandana on, though.   ;)So when I'm asked I say "Yeah, I am mixed...With Black and Blackerer...Honey, we all come from the same place don't get it twisted.