My dissertation research is one of the only studies to examine Indo-Caribbean identity in both New York City and Toronto.
Literature in Sociology on ethno-racial identity suggests that in the US, Indo-Caribbeans fall into and get absorbed by two racial categories: (1) Black, because of their migration from the Caribbean and proximity to Blackness; (2) or Asian because of their phenotype and their cultural heritage from South Asia. However, this study unpacks how and why a specific Indo-Caribbean identity amongst the second-generation emerges in New York and Toronto as both a cultural and political category of identity impacted by global, local and transnational politics. I consider how global anti-Black ideologies from the Caribbean and processes of racialization in North America affect the second-generation as they seek Indo-Caribbean places of belonging and engage in political advocacy through local community-based activism and transnationaldigital activism. I also underpin how the rise of social media usage during the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge of protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 leads to what I call pandemic activism. Pandemic activism shapes how the second-generation in both New York and Toronto use social media to engage in virtual transnationalism that advocates for an Indo-Caribbean identity. Ultimately, this study is a quest to understand how specific categories of ethno-racial identities come into existence through racialized politics that are negotiated through local, global, and transnational processes.