Identity is often fraught for multiracial Douglas, people of both South
Asian and African descent in the Caribbean. In this groundbreaking
volume, Sue Ann Barratt and Aleah N. Ranjitsingh explore the particular
meanings of a Dougla identity and examine Dougla maneuverability both at
home and in the diaspora.
The authors scrutinize the perception of Douglaness over time,
contemporary Dougla negotiations of social demands, their expansion of
ethnicity as an intersectional identity, and the experiences of Douglas
within the diaspora outside the Caribbean. Through an examination of how
Douglas experience their claim to multiracialism and how ethnic identity
may be enforced or interrupted, the authors firmly situate this analysis
in ongoing debates about multiracial identity.
Based on interviews with over one hundred Douglas, Barratt and
Ranjitsingh explore the multiple subjectivities Douglas express,
confirm, challenge, negotiate, and add to prevailing understandings.
Contemplating this, Dougla in the Twenty-First Century adds to the
global discourse of multiethnic identity and how it impacts living both
in the Caribbean, where it is easily recognizable, and in the diaspora,
where the Dougla remains a largely unacknowledged designation. This book
deliberately expands the conversation beyond the limits of biraciality
and the Black/white binary and contributes nuance to current
interpretations of the lives of multiracial people by introducing
Douglas as they carve out their lives in the Caribbean.
