Religion is seen as part of a social institution. Religion standardizes beliefs and practices to then spread and perpetuate them. It is seen as a powerful instrument of social control as well as social integration. In the Caribbean today, there are a variety of religions due to colonialism. Some of these religions include Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, African-Syncretised religions,such as Spiritual Baptisit,Hinduism and Muslim just to name a few. However religion as a social institution is dealing with grave intolerance which leads to discrimination in Caribbean society as well as mistrust. It acts as a source of oppression in the Caribbean where often, women are forced to play the subordinate role and men are the superior ones. A woman in a mainstream religion such as Roman Catholicism very often plays a conservative role where their laws may affect the woman’s reproductive health as they ban birth control as well as abortion. Oppresion is also seen in the Rastafarian relgion where the women are assigned to expected roles that were passed down from one generation to generation .Oppression is also greatly seen in the Muslim religion as women, even by custom or Koranic law, find that their behaviours, aspirations and even their wear are prescribed. But in the Caribbean, the muslim communities tend to be more relaxed however due to the coup which occurred in Triniad and Tobago in 1990, some Caribbean people are still are ease towards Muslims. It also faces discrimination as other religions feel superior to the other. In the Caribbean, at the time of colonialism, Roman Catholicism was seen as the superior religion while the other religions were viewed as irrelevant. For example, the Baptist religion had a difficult time fitting into the Caribbean especially during the colonialism times as it began by a formely enslaved man by the name of George Liele in the North America colony of Virginia. In the Caribbean society today, even though there are multiple religions, Roman Catholic is still the main religion. Other relgions are seen as inferior and this discrimination can also lead to hate crimes. For example, there are persons who are Anti-Muslims because of terrorists attacks that occur throughout the world that are mainly carried out by Muslims. Some Anti-Muslims reach to a certain extent where they kill muslims as their hatred for this partiular religion consumes them. This occurs not just in the Caribbean but all over the world. Muslims too face discrimination due to the terrorist attacks that occur not so much in the Caribbean but mainly on an international level such as the 9/11 attack which occured in America in 2001. This leads to some people in society viewing all Muslims as bad and a terrorist. In Trinidad and Tobago, on Friday 27^th July 1990, a Muslim man by the name of Abu Bakr, and his group, Jamaat al Muslimeen, stormed the red house and took over the parliament and eventually the country for a few days. This event still causes a lot of fear in Caribbean society as it adds to the fact that some people are still afraid or hate all Muslims today.

 

Gender can be defined as the role that male and females play in the society. In today’s world, sex does not just apply to male and female but also people who are part of the LGBTQ… community. However within the Caribbean, much discrimination and intolerance goes towards members of this community. For example, in Jamaica, these people are seen as outcasts. They are kicked out of their homes, jobs and their families disown them. They are forced to fend for themselves out in the streets which makes them more susceptible to hate crime. Hate crime is defined as a crime, typically one involving violence that is motivated by prejudice on the basis of race, religion, sexual orientation, or other grounds. With gender too as well , women are treated as objects and as inferior whereas for men, they are treated with high regard. This is seen also in the workplace as majority of time, the top positions go to men even though women would possess better qualifications than the men. Gender bias is also seen in the Caribbean as well especially in education.  The boys are assigned to more physical activity such as playing football, cricket or any other sport while the girls are assigned with more reading, writing , verbal skills and cooking skills as well. Gender bias is seen as well with how society forces the boys and girls towards certain careers. Nursing, teaching, librarionship and even secretarial work just to name a few are seen as more feminine type jobs while careers such as scientists and doctors are seen as male pursued careers. Although in the Caribbean, girls are more exposed to science subjects as well as mathematics, woodwork and metalwork which are considered male related subjects, society still pushes females towards the “femine” careers. 

 

Education is a part of a social institution where it transmits knowledge, skills, values all in which society sees as important as it is passed down from one generation to the other. Not only does education involve the basic reading and writing but also the teaching of basic ethics, morals and values. Education is a way in which to prepare the young generation into entering the society. Education is valued highly in the Caribbean. For majority it is a way out of the poverty they currently reside in in order to obtain a better living for themselves. This includes SEA (Secondary Entrance Assessment) which occurs at the last year of rpimary school, CXC (Caribbean Examinations Council) which occurs at the fifth year in secondary school and CAPE (Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations) which occurs at the last two years of secondary school. However according to the Marxist theory of education, it does not only perpetuate but also reinforce inequality as the system itself is rewired so that the children of the elite and wealthy will be successful. The wealthier your parents are, the better your education, as the best schools in the Caribbean with the highest education require a lot of money per term. In Trinidad and Tobago, some of these schools are Maple Leaf and the Internation School of Port of Spain which are located in the Western part of Trinidad where some of the elite reside. The cost per term is estimated to be in the thousands . They do not do the Caribbean based examinations as mentioned above, but do the Canadian and American exams (such as SATS) as they are foreign based schools. Since these are foreign based schools, they have greater connections to the American and Canadian universities and children have greater chance of getting in as compared to the Caribbean based schools who don’t really have connections to these universities abroad and have to work hard to pass the Caribbean examinations in order to obtain a scholarship to attend these universities. However money is a big factor into education as in some cases, even if some teenagers obtain the scholarships, they parents do not have enough money to help out and sometimes the government does not give the money even though you obtained a scholarship. All in all it goes to show that the Marxist theory does have a point and that money does play a factor as the children of the  wealthy and elite will obtain a better education as compared to the children of the middle wage or below wage parents in the Caribbean. These ideas originated from during the colonial times as back then the same Marxist theory of education occurred where the children of the wealthy and elite received the best education as compared to the children of slaves and those who came from the indentureship such as the Indians. Education back then and in the Caribbean today is viewed as a factor of social mobility as if you are educated, you can find a respectable job and thus move up the ladder into a better stage of society for example move from low wage/ poverty to middle class and even to high class/ the elite. Another idea of education that can be seen in the Caribbean is that as more schools are built, the main issue of obtaining a spot in a secondary school changed to obtaining a spot in a ‘good’ secondary school. Caribbean society today, in particular the parents and families, have this particular idea that the highest/ best education obtained is available in the top ranking schools, such as Naparima Boys and Naparima Girls High School located in San Fernando, Trinidad. These schools are viewed as higher-achieving, denominational schools. Needless to say, the so called “bright” students are chosen based on their success in the examinations and are compared with the students of the state secondary schools such as Rio Claro West Secondary School locathed in the southern part of Trinidad. These types of schools are viewed as low achieving and to have many disciplinary problems. However that is not the case, as according to the scholarship list of 2019, students from these so called low achieving state secondary schools have obtained scholarships such as the same state school mentioned above which received two scholarships.  This goes to show how society’s ideas are not always correct as even though they view these state schools as low achieving, some students do shine through and prove this idea wrong.

 

In conclusion, these factors even though it has its postives, there are always negatives and these negatives are what contribute to society today and how there is grave intolerance as well as mistrust. With religion, gender as well as education, it viewed just how intolerant society is today and how these issues can lead to hate crimes if not taken care of properly. The government and people of authority need to step up and fix this grave issue immediately

REFERENCES
Wallpaper photo taken by Michael Runkel and taken from Curley, Bob. 2016. Coastal Living. November 29. Accessed November 11, 2019. https://www.coastalliving.com/travel/top-10/best-caribbean-beaches?slide=181907#181907.


2019. Lexico . https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/intolerance.

Mohammed, Jeniffer. 2015. Caribbean Studies for Cape Examinations. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited.