Roots-style genealogical ancestry distorts Caribbean identity

Evidence

And, whatever the value of the explanations or the publicity Alex Haley afforded us with Roots, we have a strong sense that the overly certain affiliation invoked there does not really suit the vivid genius of our countries. — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 411

Categorization

• XREF: Follows the reader’s strategic-essentialism core: Glissant distinguishes the usable ‘strategic/‘rhizomatic’ memory from the fixed, genealogically-rooted claim that would count as literal essentialism. — connects to: Caribbean identity is defined by creolization across difference; Caribbean identity is a hierarchical hybrid between European and African racial poles — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3204; Cultural imposition forces colonized subjects to identify against their own ancestry (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Commercial DNA ancestry tests reify continental race categories as fixed biogeographical types #corroborates (0.85)
• Caribbean identity is defined by creolization across difference #complicates (0.82)
• Caribbean identity is a hierarchical hybrid between European and African racial poles #contradicts (0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3204
• Cultural imposition forces colonized subjects to identify against their own ancestry #corroborates (0.75)
• Slavery deliberately destroyed enslaved people’s connection to their ancestral lineage #corroborates (0.72) — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1254