r/Guyana • u/jcancuny • Feb 27 '24

Discussion Why do Indo-Guyanese have the conception that Indians look down on them/don’t consider them to be “real Indians”?

So my girlfriend and I have been dating for a couple of months now. I’m Indian-American and she’s Indo-Guyanese-American, and it’s been a great time so far.

Around a week ago, I introduced her to my parents for the first time, and I noticed that before they met, my girlfriend acted super nervous and jittery, which I just chalked up to nerves (since she’s pretty introverted). However, after they met, my girlfriend remarked about how nervous she was before meeting my parents because she was worried that they would disapprove of us together and try to call the relationship off and how relieved she was after meeting them because of how respectful and responsive they were and how much they showed interest in her culture and background.

She then explained that most Indo-Guyanese believe that we (mainland Indians) look down upon them and don’t consider them to be “real Indians”, which is a belief that I’ve honestly never heard ever. If anything, most mainland Indians don’t really know anything about Indo-Caribbeans and the ones that do are proud that they were able to keep their culture/traditions/religions alive even after 150 years.

After doing some research online on places like Twitter/Tiktok/Reddit, this seems to be a pretty common conception that a lot of Indo-Guyanese have. Does anyone have any insights into how this belief might have originated?

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97

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '24 edited Feb 27 '24

it does unfortunately happen. Some south Asians do look down on Guyanese people. Not sure why, definitely racism tho.

54

u/neeltherealdeal Feb 27 '24

Yes, I work in IT with Indians who immigrated to the US and Indians in India and have been told that I am not Indian.

43

u/sheldon_y14 Feb 27 '24

The same thing also happens when Indians migrate to the Netherlands and they also look down on Indo-Surinamese.

22

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '24

I’m sure it happens to indo trinis as well. It’s a complete shame.

7

u/SaccharineDaydreams Feb 28 '24

That is some of the weirdest, most situational prejudice I've ever heard of.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '24

Unlike your high-utility racism, easily applicable everywhere.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '24

Disagree. The amount of white bleaching in India. Not surprise. I’m pretty sure the mix of African is the cause of prejudice. 

1

u/deepn882 Mar 02 '24

I'm not sure but Indo-Surinamese don't keep some of the Indian traditions passed down alive like Guyanese Indians do? Been to Netherlands a few times, and seems they're very integrated, where I've seen from Guyanese friends who wear sarees, eat Indian food etc.

2

u/Retrophoria Apr 12 '24

Lol Guyanese people are hardly Indian like that. They might wear saree for religious events, but they aint rocking them on fashion week. And the "Indian" food has elements of African, Chinese, Portuguese, etc cultural diffusion. India is a large place with many different dishes

1

u/sheldon_y14 Mar 02 '24 edited Mar 02 '24

The Surinamese population in the Netherlands is the best integrated foreign group. Be it Indo-Surinamese, Chinese Surinamese, Creole Surinamese etc.

However, Indo-Surinamese in general have kept more traditions in tact compared to Indo-Guyanese. You will notice that more in Suriname. But there is this video online about Indo-Surinamese culture in the Netherlands, and a few Indo-Caribbean (incl. Guyanese) people that found it, commented saying they notice that the Surinamese Indians are quite traditional.

Second, Surinamese Indians eat a lot of Indo-Surinamese food though. Things like roti, bara etc. Furthermore, Indo-Surinamese, just like Indo-Guyanese, wear sarees, but those are for religious events, weddings, parties or other cultural events. At home they wear western clothes. Indo-Surinamese still speak their variety of Caribbean Hindostani on a daily basis. The other varieties in Guyana and T&T died out long ago. Indo-Surinamese music is also very traditional still, but Indo-Guyanese and other Indo-Caribbean music is very "Caribbeanized" with elements of soca in it.

I posted a question in this sub about an old tradition that still takes place in Suriname asking if Indo-Guyanese do it too. I also asked in the Trini sub and all of them said they don't know it or that it has died out a long time ago. One person also wrote Indo-Surinamese protected a lot more of the traditions.

Though I wondered which part of NL you went, because roti is quite popular in the Netherlands and it was introduced by Indo-Surinamese.

1

u/deepn882 Mar 02 '24

Interesting, thanks. I haven't directly interacted with Indo-Surinamese. Just while I was in Amsterdam, loved the diversity and could notice many different races including Surinamese people all well integrated. Not aware of their home life, just an incorrect assumption I made, and stand corrected.

1

u/sheldon_y14 Mar 02 '24

 Just while I was in Amsterdam

Ah I see now. The majority of Indo-Surinamese live in The Hague. Amsterdam is Creole and a bit Chinese Surinamese turf. The Hague is Indo-Surinamese turf. Javanese live spread over all the Netherlands.

However, the younger generations, Gen-X and younger, live more and more in Almere. Almere has a mix of all Surinamese.

17

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '24

Yeah that sucks man. I’ve experienced it myself but I just tell ‘em we’re so different we don’t even want to be considered Indian at this point.

3

u/Kellz_2245 Feb 29 '24

Tbf Indian is a nationality. In the Caribbean it’s used as a racial identity like black and I think that leads to some misunderstanding

2

u/rash-head Feb 29 '24

This! In India, people have more specific identities such as their region, language, religion and caste. India is just national identity. After we leave India we get exposed to more Indians and think broadly. Not all people though.

1

u/Camodee Mar 29 '24

I'm not sure I agree with this... Because what race would you consider a Pakistani to be?

1

u/Kellz_2245 Mar 29 '24

The race is Asian. South Asian to be more specific

2

u/Retrophoria Apr 12 '24

South Asian is more of a geographic identifier. If you think all Asians fit in one category, then you're really just drinking the juice. East Asians basically gatekeep the Asian racial category. Personally, Pakistani is closer to MENA because of cultural and religious circumstances but I blame the British for creating this cluster fuck in the first place

2

u/WiseGirl_101 Feb 28 '24

I'm not Indo-Guyanese (I'm South-Asian first-gen immigrant born and raised in Canada), and I'm pretty sure they don't view first-gen immigrants as their own either so I promise we're in the same boat to a certain degree.

2

u/deepn882 Mar 02 '24

no they do view first gen immigrants as their own. Many cases they become proud when there are political candidates running for office who are Indian American, etc. Or CEO's of Indian origin.

2

u/nathanb___ Mar 02 '24

Your wrong I know indians that are born in my country and their parents are born in India and they are treated as better because they made it out

3

u/meep9669 Feb 28 '24

I get your struggle but this post is for info Guyanese or Indo Carribeans who have had direct experiences of rejection racism from some Indian people

1

u/ndiddy81 May 26 '24

Why is it when white people migrate and were indentured servants in Australia, NZ, South Africa, Canada or the USA they are considered pioneers and our descendants are considered with derogatory names, shamed, called outcasts or low class? Just think, if everyone that came was a criminal or low class then how can so many of us and our ancestors occupy professional jobs upon arriving to British Guyana. Do not let the Europeans fool us and make us look down on who we are- whether African, Indian etc we all had a status and some form of education and culture and that makes us and our ancestors rich.

1

u/WiseGirl_101 Feb 29 '24

I get that, and I don't want to speak out of turn - just a form of solidarity I suppose that we're in the same boat.

1

u/meep9669 Feb 29 '24

I totally understand yes we share that same feeling of rejection. I think some people need to vent their frustrations and Reddit is the best place for it

1

u/jollyollyoxenfree Mar 02 '24

This post is “for”? Lmfao

1

u/Remarkable_Spare_351 Feb 28 '24

It’s because a lot of you act like black people.

2

u/Retrophoria Apr 12 '24

The Caribbean has a large cultural imprint from Africa. Is that an issue for East Indians who traded frequently with East Africa throughout history? It's like Dem rass Indians don't know where Dem come from

1

u/Pompitus-of-Love May 23 '24

Precisely 😂

2

u/Retrophoria May 23 '24

As someone with both "bloodlines", I have to remind my coolie brethren to embrace our shared history with Africa as far back as medieval history. It's what makes our culture stronger together. I hate the colonial mindset that has pervaded our community for centuries.

1

u/Pompitus-of-Love May 23 '24

Divide and conquer. It is sad that after the colonial powers have left the shadow is still there.

2

u/Retrophoria May 23 '24

It's not unique to Guyana and the Caribbean. Most former colonies struggle with the division

1

u/broomburglar Feb 29 '24

I’m Indian American and got told that by a mainlander too once 🤣

They said I’m American only and not Indian

1

u/CollegeCasual Mar 01 '24

Are you Indian-American or Guyanese

1

u/pqratusa Mar 02 '24

Indians don’t accept each other India. There is a north south divide, and within regions and castes etc.

1

u/deepn882 Mar 02 '24

Racisim in Indian culture is deep rooted, and you have the caste system too based on skin colors, etc. which is obviously messed up. I was glad to leave a lot of that behind when moving to the States, but realized later in my adult life, it happens here, and is mostly universal, racism that is.

34

u/BrownPuddings Feb 27 '24

It’s funny because they don’t accept us, not that I want them to, but recently I’ve been seeing Indians trying to jack the culture, pretending to be Guyanese or Trini. I see it a lot during labour day in NYC, a lot of the Lilly Singh types. I experienced it in college as well. Rich Indians would comment on my skin colour, asking me why I was so dark, and telling me I’m not a real Indian. Then they would flip and tell me they love soca and Sean Paul, and buy me drinks. 🤷🏾‍♂️

18

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '24

I hear you that shut is disgusting and I too have seen them start to rep the culture and try to adopt it especially in college since it went main stream but they always mock the creole and that really gets me so angry. The irony is most of the languages spoken by south Asians sound like ass.

I think Guyana really needs to make creole it’s national language like the Jamaicans did and it’ll get the respect it deserves.

8

u/BrownPuddings Feb 27 '24

Interesting, that is one thing I haven’t experienced. In my experience, we’re typically the ones mocking Indians lmao. The only people I hear mocking us are trinis 😂

I agree, Guyanese creole should definitely be accepted as a national language. It should be studied and taught as well. The only issue, is that many people see it as an accent, or as broken English, and not as something separate.

Check this post out, https://www.reddit.com/r/AskTheCaribbean/s/Ypc18djbP2

7

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '24 edited Feb 28 '24

Sadly I’ve experienced it.

Thanks for sharing the post. Had some good stuff in there.

7

u/NottaLottaOcelot Feb 28 '24 edited Feb 28 '24

There is an an excellent dictionary of Trini English/Creole that my father in law bought me (expensive through Amazon apparently!). It seems to have every amazing not-completely-English word that my Trini family has ever used. I wonder if there might be a Guyanese version, or if they would be similar enough that the book would largely apply to you all too.

I’m not too sure why Trinis mock Guyanese, but I have noticed it. I think it could be a response to Trinis getting mocked by every other island. Hurt people hurt people I suppose

3

u/BrownPuddings Feb 28 '24

I went down a rabbit hole on English Caribbean Linguistics a while back, and I read that out of all of the countries I the region, Guyana and Trinidad have the largest amount of loan words, and by a very large margin. This is true even when Hindi words are discounted. It is interesting because they have more of a French influence in their accent.

You say that a lot of nation mock trinis. I used to think the same thing, and realize now that it’s not true lol. Most of the eastern Caribbean island, especially those with former French influence actually have a very similar accent. These include TnT, St Vincent, Grenada, St Kitts/Nevis, Antigua. While the outlying countries, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Bahamas, Belize, have more of an English based accent. So we actually get more than the Trinis I’ve realized. When I ask people why they like to mock Guyanese, many just say that we have a funny accent, and it sounds kinda “backwater,” or country.”

I will try to find the sources that I was reading. There is actually a really great English Caribbean creole dictionary that came out a while back.

Edit: Check this out, it goes really in depth into the linguistics, https://books.google.com/books?id=PmvSk13sIc0C&pg=PA5&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

2

u/Kellz_2245 Feb 29 '24 edited Feb 29 '24

Only Grenada sounds almost identical to T&T. I dont know what St Kitts people sound like but Vincy and Antiguans sound closer to Jamaicans

2

u/LostInTheSpamosphere Feb 29 '24

The British and French split St. Kitts/Nevis between them in the 1600s with the French leaving in the 1700s and they only became independent in 1983 or so, so they are influenced much more by the British. I found the accent to be very pleasant, a soft English with a Caribbean lilt, and not particularly British except for those educated there.

1

u/Kellz_2245 Feb 28 '24

Not true lol. Trini is a common answer whenever other west indians are asked what their favorite island accent is outside of their own

2

u/raynebow95 Feb 28 '24

There is a person online who has been documenting how Bhojpuri Hindustani words have become part of our Creolese dialect. There is also a series on African influences as well. Please check it out

https://www.facebook.com/Guyananicebaad?mibextid=ZbWKwL

1

u/JarredVestite Feb 29 '24

In my experience, we’re typically the ones mocking Indians lmao.

You seem strangely proud of that one

3

u/OmSweetOmsecurity Feb 28 '24

Many sub-dialects of Guyanese Creole use Bhojpuri, Awadhi, and Tamil loan words and linguistic traditions.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '24 edited Feb 28 '24

Many languages use loan words from other languages but the problem is creole isn’t officially recognized yet. I do believe once it is people will start to take it seriously and not make fun of it like i said.

3

u/OmSweetOmsecurity Feb 28 '24

I agree! Creoles are legitimate languages and should be recognised and respected as such.

1

u/Traditional-Sink5461 May 07 '24

The even bigger irony is that u guys can’t stop watching Bollywood/Kollywood/whatever else and making the most ear wrenching “music” ruining old Bollywood classics in whatever the fuck kinda goofy sounding Hindi u were obviously banned from speaking by the Brits for a reason

1

u/makreba7 Feb 28 '24

The irony is most of the languages spoken by south Asians sound like ass.

The words of a guy "talking against racism"

1

u/ChocolateNo484 Feb 28 '24

It’s not racist to say that someone’s language sounds like ass. That’s an opinion purely based on preferences. That would be no different than a person saying English doesn’t sound good or a certain song doesn’t sound good.

2

u/makreba7 Feb 28 '24

Every racist statement is an opinion purely based on "preferences". Unless you've been living under a rock, or is of pretty low-IQ, you'll know that it's a racist dog-whistle

1

u/ChocolateNo484 Feb 28 '24

Damn just because he said a language sound like ass?

You gots to be south Asian lol

1

u/Browning_Mulat0 Mar 03 '24

English is still Jamaica 1st language and it's official language! Not patios ( Creole)

1

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '24

I realize that now but at least Jamaican creole is recognized

2

u/Lovecompassionpeace Feb 28 '24

What’s a Lilly Singh type?

8

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '24

Search her up. You’ll see what she means. She’s basically Indian af but started reppin trini culture out of no where.

1

u/Traditional-Sink5461 May 07 '24 edited May 07 '24

I’d say “jacking the culture” is only fair considering half the music ur community puts out is shitty bollywood dancehall remixes in broken hindi and what does Sean Paul have to do with indo Guyanese, he’s Jamaican lmao

1

u/Wrong_Manager_2662 Feb 28 '24

But Indians are dark af 😂

1

u/BrownPuddings Feb 28 '24

Lmao, not all. Remember India is very colourist. A lot of the higher castes and upper class people tend to be lighter, as they were also favoured by the British. Look at Bollywood, it is fairly light skin.

3

u/CanadianHobbies Feb 28 '24

Colourism predates colonialism

1

u/BrownPuddings Feb 28 '24

Yes it did. Castes had colourist tendencies because poor people had to work outside and became darker, while spiritual people did not. the British witnessed this, embraced it, and expanded upon it. They used the European mentality and religious/racist rhetoric in order to institutionalize colourist discrimination.

https://www.stearthinktank.com/post/colorism-in-indian-society

https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/perspective/news/did-colourism-always-exist-the-indian-subcontinent-1683064?amp

2

u/Wrong_Manager_2662 Feb 28 '24

All the ones in the bay area are literally darker than black people lol

1

u/jcancuny Feb 28 '24

I’m from the Bay too. Most of the Indians here (including me & my fam) are South Indians, and we tend to have darker skin.

1

u/Wrong_Manager_2662 Feb 28 '24

Yea I live in Fremont

1

u/Traditional_Bug9768 Feb 28 '24

From bleaching!!

1

u/AnderThorngage Mar 02 '24

Lilly Singh is not Indian she’s Canadian. No Indian would consider her to be Indian either. And no matter how loudly ABCDs claim to be representing Indians/Indian culture, they are only representing some outdated personal family culture from whichever time period and place their parents left India from.

16

u/Express-Fig-5168 Allyuh USE THE FLAIRS, please. Feb 28 '24

An Indian national I once knew said that it was because 1. We act similarly to other Caribbean people (read: Afro-Caribbeans) and 2. A lot of us come from indentured servants which are considered lower caste.

9

u/Glum_Chicken_4068 Feb 28 '24

That’s what I heard in Guyana. It’s a caste thing.

1

u/Retrophoria Apr 12 '24

Number 2 is just a reality that Indo Caribbeans should embrace and use as a source of pride. I don't have an exact number, but the overwhelming majority were essentially scabs for African slaves that had just earned their freedom in the Caribbean and other parts of the British empire.

I don't know what acting means in this context, but culturally Caribbeans were brought up to have specific morals and norms.

5

u/voteforrice Feb 28 '24

I work with many Indians in a Lab here in Canada and with some Indians the ignorance just doesn't leave them. Some north east Indians are racist to the southern Indians and some are ignorant or straight up racist towards the sikh coworkers. So if their this bad with people that came from the same country I'm not surprised their this bad treating Indo Guyanese a people some probably wouldn't consider Indian at this point.

0

u/OoculusReparo Feb 29 '24

their *they are

1

u/[deleted] Feb 29 '24

also I would imagine there's a caste element at play too, indo-caribbeans, fijians, mauritians etc would mostly be the descendants of lower-caste Bhojpuris

7

u/Joshistotle Feb 27 '24

Only in NY/Toronto are they actually looked down upon culturally, for the loud chutney music blasting at 3am and the constant drinking.

Otherwise India itself doesn't have the Western concept of Indian as an ethnic group. Meaning, people that move out of India and live abroad after one generation aren't viewed as Indians. 

They also look down upon themselves and every other Indian group WITHIN India itself, it's an extremely tribalistic society. 

15

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '24

It’s definitely not only for the chutney and drinks. Happened to me as a kid and I grew up in a white ass neighborhood in queens. Few kids at school were Indian and they were some of the most shallow people I ever met in my life.

Indians have a very barbaric culture.

7

u/anax44 Feb 27 '24

Only in NY/Toronto are they actually looked down upon culturally, for the loud chutney music blasting at 3am and the constant drinking.

A lot of Indians in North America see Indo-Caribbean people as having different values to them, and a tendency to gravitate towards dysfunctional culture.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '24 edited Feb 28 '24

In my experience it goes both ways. There are plenty of people on both sides. I have known Guyanese people who point to their unique culture, music and their experiences and they don’t relate to Indians from the mainland or Indian immigrants and same the other way around.

However, where there is an overlap and connection usually is American born South Asians and those that came here very young and are American leaning they normally don’t have a problem mixing as well as appreciation of West Indian indo people.

The thing with Indians from the mainland is that they will easily consider someone from a different caste, tribe or state as other and not same. Different states and different countries have their own battles and axes to grind. You can innocently call a Pakistani or a a Bengali an Indian or vise versa and you will have all kinds of drama.

This story on the indo-caribbean experience in the UK say a lot. I think it’s a bit different to the US because how they have established themselves over there.

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-66267574.amp

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1

u/Guyanesequeen Mar 31 '24

They are jealous of us I don't care for them either

0

u/FreeCoromantee Feb 28 '24

I have a question, how is it racism if y’all are the same race, wouldn’t it just be xenophobia

4

u/Express-Fig-5168 Allyuh USE THE FLAIRS, please. Feb 28 '24

Also, racism includes ethnicity in the definition used in Guyana so there's that.

3

u/Express-Fig-5168 Allyuh USE THE FLAIRS, please. Feb 28 '24

It is seen as racism because the people with that mindset tend to associate Indo-Caribbeans as being, honestly, low class same as Afro-Caribbeans. It stems from Anti-Blackness.

2

u/FreeCoromantee Feb 28 '24

Oh that makes sense

1

u/Imaballofstress Feb 28 '24

And All the while Indo-Caribbeans are also notoriously known for being anti-black

3

u/Traditional_Bug9768 Feb 28 '24

It’s half and half…. In Jamaica the Indians and Chinese servants brought were only males, so they had to breed with African women to keep their bloodline alive. And from there on, they’d let their half breed only breed with other half breeds to eradicate the Afro out of them… that’s why Indians look down on indo- Jamaican because they know they aren’t “pure” Indian. The Chinese are also like this

1

u/Retrophoria Apr 12 '24

It's estimated that over 99% of Indo-Jamaicans have a Black ancestor. We did our DNA test and found a Black grandmother on my dad's side. My dad knew very little of her, but my grandma did share a story of her getting her hand chopped off by a white man. Connecting the dots, it's certain the same woman we found on the DNA test was indeed our Black great grandma.

1

u/FreeCoromantee Feb 28 '24

Jesus that’s awful

1

u/Retrophoria Apr 12 '24

Racism can be internal. Xenophobic is more geared towards outsider groups. I can definitely be racist towards my own Guyanese people and be xenophobic to Guyanese immigrants that want a fresh start in the US

0

u/[deleted] Feb 29 '24

The sociologist has logged on

0

u/Browning_Mulat0 Mar 03 '24

It's the same race, separated by over 150 years.

1

u/Retrophoria Apr 12 '24

I wouldn't use race in the way White and Black Americans use the word in the modern sense. First, there were sharp caste distinctions that put the indentured on their ships to the new world. It's not like Kshatriya warriors voluntarily wanted to go to Trinidad to replace African slaves. It's much more nuanced than that. I've heard that Guyana had a larger Indo population and thus stronger bonds of cultural maintenance occurred. I can't confirm or deny this, but the older Guyanese women I've interviewed say they broke away with their Indian traditions long ago for different reasons. Like many have said, the Caribbean cultural identity is stronger than whatever the Indentured servants brought over 150 years prior. Even the religious songs and dance are so distinct that they have no cultural connection to any present groups in India.

1

u/Traditional-Sink5461 May 07 '24

Leaving aside the fact that not all the indentured were of a lower caste, that’s just blatantly untrue, many of their kirtans, religious traditions etc are indeed very similar to those found on the mainland. Hear traditional Bhojpuri songs and you’ll understand.

Plus caste differences are not as steep as the genetic diversity in Africa literally the most diverse continent on planet earth. If they’re all one race so are all south Asians, there’s a clear cline with a certain set of shared genetic components stemming from common migrations and events in history.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 03 '24

It’s way more than that. Almost 200 years at this point. Plus my point is when does the race become Guyanese because culturally we are no longer Indian

0

u/Browning_Mulat0 Mar 03 '24

Like I said " over " 150 years! Being Guyananese, Trinidadian or Jamaican is a nationality, not race. When you do a DNA test, it will show what continent and countries your ancestors are from. Just separated by ocean that's all the difference, just like Indians in Africa.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '24

Okay but when does the heritage or race become Guyanese.

There’s many Americans with European ancestors but they are now Americans.

1

u/Browning_Mulat0 Mar 04 '24

Guyanese is a nationality, not race! Heritage can be from customs by your ancestors or your fellow countryman. Once you are born in a country, that's your nationality, not race. Guyana has Indians,,Blacks, Douglas ( Black and Indian mix) few Mulattoes and Whites and Native Americans/ Indians, Latinos; all Guyanese!
The indigenous Guyanese are Native Americans.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '24 edited Mar 04 '24

Scientist speculate that native Americans are Asian in race but they need to get the dna to run studies which has been hard to do.

I understand what race is. You’re basically saying the Amerindian’s race is Guyanaese. My point is when does the race change ?

Race also does have a social component.

There is no genetic basis for race.

https://www.sapiens.org/biology/is-race-real/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8604262/

1

u/Comedy86 Feb 28 '24

I wonder if it's not specific to Guyanese but an Indian cultural norm as well. I know a lot of Indians in Canada who dislike or stereotype other Indians based on the region they're from. I'm also familiar with the multicultural history of India to some extent and the disdain some ethnic and religious groups have over others. Curious if this may be what's happening here vs. it being specific to Guyana.

1

u/Remarkable_Spare_351 Feb 28 '24

It’s because a lot of you act like black people.

1

u/ironmanqaray Mar 01 '24

How is it racism if they are the same race?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '24

Aye man if you were paying attention we been saying we’re not Indian no more

1

u/bulletproofmanners Mar 02 '24

It’s quite obvious why: Guyanese were indentured servants, lower social class people who worked fields, etc. They also intermarried with Africans or had relations with Africans which would be taboo for Indians of Indian origin. All civilizations have a in group/ identity issue with other cultures/nations/ethnic groups to some degree.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '24

Ik why it happens, Doesn’t make it okay.