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Although in the United States the terms "race" and "ethnicity" are sometimes used interchangeably, there is a bias toward viewing issues affecting people of African descent as a single, unified group (race) and white people as a collection of distinct ethnicities (TATUM, 2019). Ethnicity is not a biological category, but rather a way of categorizing people who have a common social and cultural heritage, but the two are sometimes used interchangeably.

The very term "Afro-Caribbean culture" suggests certain tendencies among those who identify with it. Although the terms "race" and "ethnicity" are sometimes used interchangeably in the United States, there is a bias toward viewing issues affecting people of African ancestry as if they were a single, unified group ("race"), and Caucasians as if they were a collection of "subgroups" or "ethnicities." Ethnicity, unlike race, which is defined physiologically, refers to a group or categorization of individuals who share in a shared social and cultural background, however the phrases are often used interchangeably (TATUM, 2019). There is a common ancestry among those of African descent and those of Caribbean descent. Southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American peninsula, east of Central America, and north of South America is where you'll find this area on a map. The Caribbean Sea, along with all of the islands and the beaches surrounding them, make up this region. By insinuating an association with Africa, the prefix "Afro" misrepresents the origins of the culture. It's safe to assume that negative ideas will be widely disseminated in this society (TATUM, 2019). Some examples of these are the negative emotions of anger and perplexity that never seem to go away.

It is possible to anticipate people's reactions and the associated feelings. Think about how college students' spectrum of emotions from guilt and humiliation to wrath and despair is triggered by discussing race in the classroom. Due to the unpleasantness of these feelings, some students may actively try to avoid learning (TATUM, 2019). From a culture forced to bear the weight of US racial war, we may expect similar, if not more severe, reactions. It is safe to assume that Afro-Caribbean people in the United States will always work to forge their own unique cultural identity within mainstream American culture.

The Afro-Caribbean worldview, for instance, is characterized by a heightened sense of responsibility for one's career, one's education, and one's social standing (Gould et al, 2018). This is in part due to negative African-American portrayals of black people in popular culture (nigger, coon, sambo) that portray them as slow, easily scared, habitually lazy, incoherent, nincompoops.

Reference

Gould, W. A., Diaz, E. L., Álvarez-Berríos, N. L., Aponte-González, F., Archibald, W., Bowden, J. H., ... & Torres-González, S. (2018).  US Caribbean (pp. 809-871). US Global Change Research Program.

TATUM, B. D. (2019). Talking about Race, Learning about Racism: The Application of Racial Identity Development Theory in the Classroom. Harvard Educational Review, 1-25.