Welcome & CDEM Recap

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Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Carry On Friends, the Caribbean American Experience. In this episode, I will be talking about lens two of the Caribbean Diaspora Experience model, otherwise known as CDEM. So if this is your first time listening to this podcast, or you're just jumping back in, you are catching up, and you may not have gone back to other episodes. CDEM is a model that I created, and it is a simple way for us to better understand how Caribbean cultural identity forms, evolves, and expresses itself outside the region in diaspora communities. It's grounded in real life experiences, mine, my family's experiences, my friends, my communities, and stories shared on the podcast. It offers a simple, relatable way to explore the complexity of identity outside the Caribbean region. Now, CDEM breaks down a complex topic into six relatable real-world lenses. Again, I just want to say it's not theory, it's a lived experience model built from years of observation, conversation, and community insight. The model doesn't tell you who you should be, it just helps you to see who you are, where you've been, and how your identity has grown across time, places, and relationship, and also how it's shifting. So with the sixth lens, lens one is where you start, shapes the journey. And there are six starting points identified in the model. There's also a sublens, what was happening when you started, which plays a role in the starting points. Lens two, which we'll be discussing a little bit later, where you live plus what you seek equals how you connect. Lens three, cultural anchors keep us rooted. Lens four, your identity will shift. That's the point. And here we also have another sublens. How you show your identity also changes. Lens five, cultural identity influences how we show up at work. And lens six, you're not either or, you're both and. So that was a really quick high-level recap. And I will link to the prior episodes related to CDEM, which is an overview episode and a deep dive into lens one.

Introducing Lens Two

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So today we're doing a deep dive into lens two, where you live plus what you seek equals how you connect. Because location isn't the end all to all when it comes to cultural connection. Instead, your geographic location and your personal motivation, they work together to shape how deeply you engage in Caribbean culture. And in my experience, the results might surprise you.

Brooklyn to Milwaukee: A Case Study

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Most people know through listening to the podcast that I moved from Jamaica to Brooklyn. So I m left Jamaica with my mother and brothers. And then after a couple of years, my mother and brothers and I, we left Brooklyn and we moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My uncle was already there. I had cousins already there. And a few members of the community that I grew up in were already in Milwaukee. And so every time I tell people I used to live in Milwaukee, they're like, Milwaukee. And I said, yes, there was a thriving Jamaican community there. And people would always be surprised. Now, I'm not saying Milwaukee is Brooklyn. However, from living in both places, I have very interesting observations. In addition, while living in Milwaukee, I went to college and met someone who left Jamaica and went directly to Milwaukee, which for me, coming from Brooklyn at the time, I was like, huh, how did you end up here? My uncles had left from other parts of the U.S. and ended in Milwaukee. They didn't get there directly. So him and his family leaving from Jamaica to Milwaukee directly was also very interesting. So in this lens, I explore the different aspects of geography and motivation.

Density Levels: High, Medium, Low

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So if you live in high-density locations like Brooklyn, right? So I've talked about in Brooklyn in the 90s, Caribbean culture was everywhere, dance hall culture. There was just a natural immersion. But high density areas provide what I call ambient cultural connection. You don't have to try hard. It's just everywhere. Almost every neighborhood you walk in Brooklyn, there's a Caribbean something. There's a Jamaican something. There's Caribbean culture everywhere. So because of that, it's ambient. It's always around. You don't have to really look for it. Like businesses, community events, you know, are readily available in addition to, of course, Caribbean restaurants or clubs or parties, right? And it creates a cultural bubble where Caribbean identity and culture feels very normal. It's almost as if you're still home, with the exception, there's no sun, there's no beach, right? So that's an example of a high density location. Medium density locations, they have some Caribbean businesses and cultural events. Um it requires active seeking of cultural connections and cultural maintenance really requires a conscious effort. What would I say is a medium density location? I have to think about that as an example. Low density locations, you know, they have minimal Caribbean population with little visible presence. Come to think of it, today today I would consider Milwaukee a medium density location because of what I've witnessed. But when I moved there in the 90s, it was a low density location. And so there's a very small Caribbean population with visible presence. As a matter of fact, I can't even say Caribbean, it was Jamaican. There was intentional creation of cultural spaces and businesses. And um cultural maintenance demands significant personal initiative to remain connected to culture. And I'll give examples of that.

Motivation: What Drives Connection

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But for him to have those Jamaican products to sell to us, he had to drive to Chicago to buy them and then bring them back to Milwaukee and resell them to the Jamaican community there. Now, it's a convenience because not all of us are going to drive to Chicago. If you know anything about Chicago, the parking there is almost like paying a second mortgage. So no one wants to drive to Chicago if they don't have to. So the convenience of him doing that, bringing it back, is a convenience to the Jamaicans that were in Milwaukee at the time. In addition, we had to get really creative about how we use products leveraging other cultures around the city. Motivation factors. What drives cultural connection? Cultural connection is driven by whether you feel your culture is at risk of being lost, your family expectation, the stage of life where you are and your current needs, your connection to the homeland and, you know, whatever memories you're connecting to, and maybe experiences of feeling different or discriminated against. Now, your personal motivation will evolve. Your motivation to connect will change across your different life stages. And, you know, for me, moving from Brooklyn where consumption of Caribbean culture was passive, I didn't have to try. I was in a high school where there was Caribbean teachers. When we had parties, it was gonna be a Caribbean DJ. It was just everything to more intentional

When Effort Deepens Culture

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in Milwaukee. Sometimes you can find that because people live in medium or low density areas where there's not a lot of Caribbean culture the way it is in, say, Brooklyn, you will find that they have really strong connections to culture. And it's because they've had to work extra hard to build, to find. And so they try really hard to maintain that connection to culture. When culture requires effort, people become more intentional about what they preserve because it's just not easily accessible. So whatever they get access to, they maintain it. It's almost like a routine. So living in high-density areas like Brooklyn, the ease of it can sometimes lead to taking the cultural connection for granted. And I didn't realize this until I left and went to Wisconsin. In this context, Caribbean businesses become cultural anchors, which is different from natural cultural anchors, right? Like food and stuff. So Caribbean businesses become cultural anchors in these medium or low density areas. And that's why anywhere in the world you can find a Jamaican, whether it's a Jamaican restaurant or something. And that Jamaican restaurants or business is not only about commerce and business opportunity, it's a way to maintain and hold on to culture in low density areas, especially when you are very far away. So there Jamaican business is all the way in Europe. The tickets from Europe to Jamaica are not cheap, right? So you have to

Businesses as Cultural Anchors

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find ways to maintain a connection to the culture because it's not like our friends in Florida who can pick up and just fly to Jamaica or the Caribbean quick, quick, right? I also want to call to mind Sahia Hobb's story. She was on the podcast a few episodes ago. Sahia is now based in Paris, but in her telling of the story, her parents left Jamaica for Iowa, the Midwest. And that is not a frequent migration pattern. As I mentioned, my college friend, his family left Jamaica directly for Milwaukee. And despite being born in Iowa, diaspora born in a low density area, she maintained strong cultural connections. Her mother had a strategy, which was basically adapting culture to whatever was available. She was part of the church community and they would go hunt and hunt for pheasants. Pheasant is a big bird. And she would curry the pheasant. And she told the story that they were like, hmm, when they tasted the curry pheasant, again, she was marrying

Paris–Iowa Story: Adapting Culture

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curry, a part of our culture, with the pheasant. I asked her how her mother got curry and what her mother did back then, which now they're businesses that do that. They have family in New York. And so she would just get packages of stuff and get sent to her. And so that's how she had her supply. And to be honest, I do that for my mom. When my mom comes here, she wants to get a whole bunch of other stuff. Even though she gets it over there, some things over there, she wants to come here to New York and get it. And there's certain things, if you know, someone's coming from Jamaica, they want it. It's just different. Um their attachment to getting stuff and where it's coming from. And, you know, Sahia's story is a perfect example of even if you are born in a low density area, her parents really tried hard to make sure they're connected to culture. And it's really about how you want to connect and maintain connection. So what I did in this lens is you have a high density and high motivation. So you have a deep connection to culture and you are very engaged in cultural activities. Then you have high density and low motivation, which is passive. It's it's ambient. You engage if you want to engage, because it's around. You don't have to work hard for it, right? So it's surface level participation. You're just going about life, you know, care, you know, about how much you connect because, again, it's just easily accessible. And in your mind, you're never worried about disconnecting because, you know, there's so many Jamaican and Caribbean restaurants you can pick from. It's like close your eyes, spin around, and wherever your finger point, that's the store you're

The Four Quadrants of Connection

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going into. You have low density and high motivation, and this is the intentional cultural connection, like Sahia and her parents, and even my uncles in Milwaukee. And then you have low density and you have low motivation. And I've had my friends tell me stories about people they've met, and, you know, they they went to places where there weren't a lot of Jamaicans, went to low density areas, and there wasn't really a motivation to remain connected to culture for whatever the reason is. So there's cultural disconnection and a potential loss of that cultural connection. As I mentioned in lens one, there's a starting point that is diaspora-born and disconnected to culture, right? And so it is not my job, your job, to judge why people disconnect from culture. There, there just could be so many scenarios. It is our job to understand that there are various circumstances under which people find themselves disconnected. Geography, as I'm outlined here, plays a significant role in disconnection. Geography plus time of migration can compound the disconnection. So if you think back to the early 80s and even earlier, people moving to low density parts of the US might experience disconnection, or if they don't experience it, the children born to them might experience disconnection. So lens two helps us to understand how geography

Geography, Time, and Disconnection

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contributes to this cultural maintenance or loss. Some strategies to apply is if you're in a high density area, like I was speaking to a coworker, and in a way, she acknowledged that she was in that ambient phase of connecting to culture because she didn't have to try. It's just around. And so if you're in a high density area, it's thinking of how you can move beyond passive consumption to active engagement in culture. It could mean do you support local cultural organizations when they have events? It could be a variety of things based on the location, the city, because Brooklyn has very different things from cities in Florida, you know, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, you know, different cities have different things. If you're in low density areas, seek out others, create a community. And again, it's usually congregating at a business that becomes an anchor. The business usually starts as the hub that begins to attract different Caribbean people because all of a sudden someone says, hey, this new restaurant, and people start to go. And that is where you can begin to create connection. Again, as I said before, it's it's what personally motivates you. And

Strategies for High and Low Density

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at the time when I lived in Brooklyn, it was just like a thing. It was a no-brainer. Going to Milwaukee was eye-opening for me because I had to work hard. And I think about as I'm, you know, recording this, I think about how much harder my uncles and the guy who set up that convenience store had to work to get to that place because I came in as the generation after them, after they've already established this community, you know, like in Milwaukee, there was a sound system that came out of Milwaukee. I believe it was called Katarak. And I mean, they were popular at one point. So they were like popular, clash, and everything. So here we are, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There is a sound system, there are concerts, there is events, they they have done many things. They have clubs, they they try to bring different people to come there. So again, they did a lot of work to get to where it is in 2025 and beyond. It has grown tremendously. It went from no Caribbean, no Jamaican restaurant to a bunch of Jamaican restaurants, right? Um, and so many places to get Jamaican cuisine. Whereas when I was there, that wasn't really the case. So as we wrap up, lens two is where you live plus what you seek equals how you connect. And this lens examines how your location and personal drive to connect or disconnect from culture influences your access and engagement to Caribbean culture. Me living in both locations, Brooklyn and Milwaukee, taught me the difference between access and connection. Access does not equal connection. And it made me realize that cultural maintenance and connection is often about intention more than location. And this understanding shapes how I approach cultural connections now. So maybe when I was younger, I would say, oh, you don't live in Brooklyn. I mean, yes, you know, living in Brooklyn and being Jamaican or Caribbean is one thing, but I don't assume that because someone now lives in Iowa or Minnesota, where I know Jamaicans are,

Growth of Milwaukee’s Scene

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or in Alabama, I don't make the assumption that they're not as connected to culture because they could be even more connected to culture than I am because they are doing all the things to hold on to the connection. So where do you live on the geographic density spectrum? Are you in a high density or are you in a low density? How motivated are you to maintain cultural connection and what drives that motivation? What's one way you could be more intentional about cultural connection in your current environment? Please let me know. Reach out on social media. And I just want you to remember as we close that your environment influences your cultural connection, but your intention determines it. So whether you're in the heart of Caribbean Brooklyn or in the middle of rural America, your cultural identity can thrive. It might just look very different. In the next episode, I'll cover lens three cultural anchors keep us rooted. Thank you for listening to this episode. And until next time, walk good.