Interracial Relationships Part 2 - Fun Collaboration with 'ABC Storytelling'

Yes folks! This has been a long time in coming but it's finally here. The second part of my exploration of interracial relationships focuses on interracial relationships right here in Trinidad and Tobago. This time around, zooming in on this issue in my own country gave me opportunity to collaborate with a fellow blogger by the name of Anietha Charles. She is an amazing storyteller and hugely talented illustrator. I'll talk a little more on Anietha Charles and the collaboration in a bit. Such excitement!!!

I decided to explore IR's in Trinidad and Tobago because while doing research for part 1, I realized that there is very little said about it here. The most I could find were a few articles (about three) and they were from students like myself. There was probably one newspaper columnist who dealt with it as well. Videos were also scarce. I found one youtube video and it was from a UWI student. I couldn't say anything about how Trinbagonians feel about IR and so I chose to research the information by conducting interviews with the people of Trinidad and Tobago and recording it, thereby raising more awareness on the subject. This led to the video below, which can be seen as a general snapshot of how people in this country feel about IR's.

Over 30 people were interviewed in the course of one day and while the responses were varied, the prevailing attitudes were very similar. My camera guy, Zamfir Khan (a really cool guy. Please check out his blog) and I traversed COSTAATT university (College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago) and also the streets of down town POS to conduct the interviews and found many compliant folks who gladly gave their opinions. I really enjoyed the process.  I learned a lot and that day. After a hard day of canvasing the streets and conducting interviews I can say I am truly proud to be a Trinidadian.

There were, of course some sad discoveries. One of the students from the college mentioned that she had a friend who was a girl of East Indian decent who was romantically involved with a boy of African decent and that the parents of the girl were "kicking against it", as stated in the words of the student.  I won't pretend to be totally naive. I am aware of the racial tension between the people of East Indian decent and the people of African decent in this country but what I found to be interesting is that this mindset is primarily with the older generation. The young people of both races aren't thinking like their parents and grandparents. The younger generation have no hangups, no divisions and no reasons to be divided. They opt for unity and togetherness and that is very promising for us as a nation. So overall I must say that compared with other nations like the US and the UK, we are doing pretty good on the racial front, particularly where interracial relationships are concerned.

Collaboration with Anietha Charles

Anietha - a graphic design student - is such a talented individual. When I discovered her storytelling capabilities in addition to her artistic abilities, I was blown away. During my interviews I allowed the interviewees to tell stories about how IR couples they knew, met each other. I asked Anietha if she could illustrate these stories so that I could add them to the video. She did a fantastic job and I was so glad for the opportunity to work with her in such a way. As mentioned above she also writes a blog which is entitled "ABC Storytelling". Check it out here and look out for other fun collaborations coming soon.