Caryl Phillips: "Color Me English"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-09-21/caryl-phillips-color-me-english
Author Caryl Phillips is keenly aware of the tensions between modern society and migration. He was born in the Caribbean and raised in Britain. As a child, he and his brother were the only black students in his school. His struggle to fit in was thrown into stark contrast by the arrival of the school’s first Muslim student. Years later, he moved to America – the land of his dreams - only to discover the dream was fading. Now, in his new book “Color Me English” he explores the experience of both the immigrant and the exile. He challenges himself and us to reflect on the politics of identity and what it means to belong.
Guests
Caryl Phillips
author
Program Highlights
British playwright and author Caryl Phillips moved to the U.S. two decades ago. Living in the shadows of the twin towers, he was drawn by what he saw as America's more inclusive identity. Then the towers came down.
Fighting, Running, and Reading
As a child of immigrants, Phillips felt a great pressure from his parents to read, study, and excel in school. "But inevitably, you know, there was hostility and there was prejudice and there was difficulties at school as, you know, immigrant kids often have. So you had to learn to fight and you had to learn to run."
Growing Apart from Family
The downside to learning was that Phillips sometimes felt alienated from his family as a result of growing more confident in the U.S. He was having a drink with his father once when the waitress brought him the wrong drink, and Phillips as for the right one. His father was upset. "To the first generation migrant, there's still a tentative anxiety-fueled exchange that they have with society, that, you know, their children, often, just don’t have that."
Immigration in the U.S. as Compared to Europe
"Here it's made easier because of the nature and the structure of the society. You have the hyphen here so you can call yourself an Italian-American or a Jewish-American or a Swedish-American. European societies resist that hyphen so you don't have Pakistani-Brits. Or, you know, you don't have a Jamaican-Brit. There's a sense that you have to choose, and that's a much more brutal way of moving into a society."
Immigrant Women
The majority of immigrants to America today are women, which is a change from the historic balance, Phillips said. "One of the things I'm always astonished by is you ride the subway in New York, particularly early in the morning or at the end of the day, seven, eight, nine o'clock, the majority of the people who look exhausted, battered, beaten down, whose heads are nodding and bobbing on the subway going back home after a long day's work are women. And I often look and I wonder if there's any other capital or major - not a capital, major city in the world that has such a disproportionate gender balance where it comes to basic blue collar manual labor that's mainly women."
You can read the full transcript here.
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
PLEASE PASS THIS EMAIL TO CARYL PHILLIPS.
I was born in London and have lived here in the US for the past 30 years. I am STILL considered a foreigner here - I undertook research, was a physician and am generally reasonably well educated. I, like you, took up teaching late in life while here. Whenever a patient dislikes my treatment plan, I can be yelled at coloured with a racial slur!
This country is NOT a melting pot. People ignore each other - this is what is considered as tolerance. The middle class here (yes, there is a class structure equally as well defined as in the UK) put up with others, as long as they do not see them.
I am amazed that you seem to have learned very little since living here. You are a 'black/dark' ENGLISHMAN yet you sound ENGLISH - listen to the blacks here ....... they do not sound like the average American. Is this an example of the melting pot?
I get so tired of hearing 'intellectuals' on NPR telling me what they THINK is correct. Get out of the collage, get a job in a factory, ride the NY subway at rush hour each day, get a Greyhound bus and cross the country and then write a book about how this is a MELTING POT - THEN - go to the UK and walk around the East End of London and see how polite and kind the new immigrants are to the English.
People are NOT tolerant of others. It is sad, it is tragic, but it is a reality.
Do I think that the situation can change? Yes, but we are going about it the wrong way and the intellectuals of this world are NOT helping.
I am a 3rd generation polish-cuban and victim of the desire of my parents to 'make me American' by hiding my grandparents cultures. My father spoke at least 5 languages but my mother forbade our learning any but English, for fear of the ostracism they felt as immigrants. I have always felt a terrible loss of those cultures and even the mental, social, and emotional benefits of speaking other languages.
Your story about your classmate reminds me of a similar experience my daughter's father had in school. He is Pakistani and when an Indian student started he was very hesitant to befriend him. There was a natural draw to befriend him because he was not white and shared a somewhat similar culture, but he was afraid that his white classmates would say "Oh they're friends because they are both brown." It took a few years but the soon became very close friends based primarily on personality traits, culture and less about race.
Good Morning,
I am enjoying your show this morning with Mr Caryl Phillips. I look forward to buying his book. Having moved to the U.S 21 years ago from Africa I still have an accent by some standard. While in the military and now in my civilian life, when i speak i am often confused not as an African but from the West indies, and when the conversation continue i try to educate the other person of myself and where i am from, Cameroon.
To Execelsior :I think you may have missed the point of his whole interview. I don't think Caryl Phillips considers himself an "intellectual", but more of an observer of his own experiences with race and identity. It seems like you might have an issue with your own identity and place in the United States, as well many people do, I do. To critize and neglect the great points he did bring up, is showing that you only believe in your own experiences, instead of being open minded to others.
Also, have you picked up the OVER a dozen books, novels, and anthologies he's written/edited? How can you even understand his own opinion with an hour conversation.