The largest problem in the Caribbean is the ongoing battle of racism. Racism also known as racialism which is any action, practice or even belief that reflects a racial point of view, that divides humans into separate biological entities called “races” which is linked to certain characteristics such as skin colour and hair texture .This issue began in the days of colonialism and conquest, where the white man was superior and the black man was inferior. In this case black does not just identify with persons of African descent but with the Caribbean as a whole. And in the colonial times if you were not white, you were black, your differing descents did not matter just the colour of your skin. Additionally due to the French revolution the Caribbean is also referred to as the “creole basin.” Off course many “whites” will disagree with that statement as today many of them are accepting “our people” as theirs. In modern Caribbean societies racists practices are not occurring just between the “black” and the “white” man but now between different race and ethnic backgrounds such as the Afro-Caribbean and the descendants of immigrants from India. Trinidad and Suriname are such Caribbean countries where there are Indo-Afro racist practices present. Many view the Caribbean as a “melting pot” or a “callaloo” meaning a mixture of persons of different race and ethnic backgrounds coming together. This type of racism also stemmed from the days of slavery and indenture ship.  This protruding subject of concern has caused a rise in the levels of intolerance and mistrust amongst one another. Causing persons to turn against each other due to the colour of their skins and texture of their hair. To a person of African descent, a person of a lighter skin colour is more privileged as they have more perks from their point of view. This idea has been brought about by our historical past when the indenture ship system began, African slaves observed that the Indian indentured labourers worked just as hard as them but were paid. So to in the Caribbean societies today to these individuals have the idea that persons of a lighter skin colour and softer hair texture is superior or more privileged. As to these persons of African descent everyone else has acquired a higher standard of living and are more accepted in society, whilst they have demeaning jobs and are not widely accepted. This division between a people living together can cause a level of difference and intolerance towards each other. Even though there is a stigma with the acceptance of “black” people or Caribbean people, we are being accepted by the “white man” breaking the stereotype.

            In addition to racism, another noticeable problem faced in the Caribbean today is intra – island intolerance.  The term intra- island intolerance would mean the influx of persons of other nationalities immigrating into another country, while learning to live with the citizens of that country. Although these immigrants go these countries with the intention of finding work to send back money to help sustain their families. Even though most immigrants migrate to Caribbean countries with the intention of sustaining themselves and their families, some while fulfilling this goal disrupts or cause inconveniences to the citizens of these countries for example loss of job opportunities. A perfect example is the large influx of Venezuelan immigrants present in the country of Trinidad. They either enter the country legally or are smuggled into the country. Locals find it unfair that these immigrants can come into their country and immediately receive jobs but what they fail to acknowledge is the fact that these individuals are accepting jobs that the locals would find demeaning such as working in a gas station as a pump attendant or in fast food place, even though they may be well educated and held higher positions in their home country. In this country there are not only just Venezuelans that are present but Nigerians who work taxi and Jamaicans and Guyanese who work as gas station pump attendants. There are many reasons for the intrusion of foreigners into the Caribbean countries such as the economic environment of a country, better job opportunities outside the home country and escaping low standards of living. Locals tend to have a high level of intolerance to these persons as to them they are “soaking” up the country’s resources leaving nothing for the citizens of the country. In Trinidad, local women claim that the Venezuelan women are interfering in their married lives, but a Venezuelan school teacher came out and gave her statement saying that they did not come to the country to take anyone’s husband. With this being said it shows that Trinidadian women neither trust nor can tolerate Venezuelan women.

            Gender inequality is also a very important and prevalent issue in the Caribbean. It can be defined as allowing persons different opportunities due to differences based only on gender. Gender inequality is not just a modern day issue, it comes straight from the days of slavery, and even down to the Neo-Indians gender inequality was seen. This issue came out of socially constructed ideas about tasks appropriate for men and tasks appropriate for women to carry out. In the Neo-Indian societies it could be seen where men and women had different and specific tasks to perform, we can even see that a woman was never the head of the household, hence their societies were patriarchal which is similar to most households in the Caribbean. Another issue with gender inequality is that certain type of behaviours are only expected of women and not men, for example there is a stereotypical thinking that if a guy has many female friends it is okay but if a female has more than two male friends society points fingers towards her. Why must that be? Why must women be questioned and not men? How can that be just in the eyes of society? Another fine example is if a man hit a woman he is automatically labelled as abusive without being able to explain himself but if a woman hits a man everyone assumes automatically it is out of self-f defence.  Why must man always be in the wrong? People need to understand that women are wrong to and women can be abusive to. Women fight endlessly for equal rights as men from workplace behaviour to equality in the household but they find themselves in any unwanted situations they want to use the fact that they are a female. Why must they want equality when it is beneficial to them? How is that fair to men to work just as hard and maybe deserve more than they do? Women also face gender inequality especially in the workplace, an example is glass ceilings. At times no matter how qualified a woman is for the job employers will choose the man over the woman. As mentioned before most of the households in the Caribbean are patriarchal and even it is a single parent home it is patriarchal or that household is damned to fall apart. That idea is absolutely wrong, as women can lead a household just as good as or even better than men sometimes. 

            In conclusion it can be seen that the Caribbean can be characterised by grave mistrust and intolerance at all levels. As stated before the issues of racism, intra-island intolerance and gender inequality contribute to this statement. There are many who will agree and there are those who will disagree and that is acceptable as not everyone shares the same views. But as stated before there is minimal to no bias when discussing these issues.