Caribbean and Asian minorities are internally diverse yet outwardly homogenized

Evidence

So-called “ethnic minorities” have indeed formed strongly marked, cultural communities and maintain in everyday life, especially in familial and domestic contexts, distinctive social customs and practices. There are continuing links with their places of origin. This is especially the case in the densely settled areas, such as Afro-Caribbean communities in Brixton, Peckham, and Tottenham; in Manchester Moss Side, Liverpool, and Handsworth; or Asian communities in places like Southall, Tower Hamlets, Birmingham’s Balsall Heath, Bradford, and Leeds. But there are also differences which refuse to be consolidated. Caribbeans from the different islands come from quite distinctive racial and ethnic mixes, though they all tend (wrongly) to be seen as “Jamaican.” “Asians” are also lumped together as a single group. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 331

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to later Islamophobia readings on how racialized groups get homogenized as a single ‘Other’ despite internal difference.