elletheroyal Answer:
Being Caribbean is Only an Advantage!!
Look, the honest truth is that someone with a Caribbean background can almost too easily pass as EXOTIC and tantalizing in wealthy circles.
All you have to do is learn how to work it to your advantage, and here’s how to do it:
1. Make it your selling point: One of the first questions people typically ask me at events is “Where are you from?”. My answer is always the same: “New York but my family’s originally from Haiti”. 99.98% of the time, my answer’s met with genuine interest and a ton of follow up questions. Why? Because us Caribbean girls are a walking, talking, eating, breathing contradiction.
In these circle, particularly in America, there’s a HUGE stigma surrounding African Americans for being ghetto, loud, violent, etc. It sucks. It’s awful. However, the same cannot be said about Non-African American black people. We’re not talked about much in the media so we’re not stigmatized in the same way. In these settings, we’re not called loud or distasteful, we’re called mysterious and exotic.
So make it your agenda to share your cultural background as early in the conversation as possible! Make it one of the first things that comes out of your mouth. BECAUSE, you can follow it up by:
2. Romanticizing your culture through your story: Okay, story time: The first time I talked to Prince A, I spent the first 30 minutes of our conversation talking about my Haitian background. I told him about our rich history, our cultural values, our food, our traditions, literally everything. I crafted my entire persona around being the exotic, worldly Caribbean girl he’s never experienced before. Long story short, he told me he was falling in love with me by our second conversation.
So don’t be afraid to romanticize your culture through your unique story! Make it dramatic, make it appealing, make it suspenseful; make it completely original.
3. Turn your culture into a sensory experience: Don’t just talk about it, make it fun! Show them pictures of your home country, talk about the sights, the sounds, the smells. Engage the senses. The first meal I had with Prince A was at a hole in the wall Haitian restaurant. Would he ever have been caught dead in that setting without me? Hell no. And the fact that I exposed him to a completely new world and filled his senses with every aspect of my background made him love me all the more. Several days ago he told me that every time he even sees the word Haiti his mouth waters and he thinks of yours truly.
So in conclusion, please never ever say something so silly again. As a Caribbean/West Indian girl you are an absolute prize. You NEED to start operating from that mentality. Same goes for all ethnic girls. Let your culture SHINE because with the right flare, it’s nothing but an asset.