Twenty-fourth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Given the Caribbean’s post-colonial history with daunting, carceral challenges of the following: structural racism, patriarchy, and colorism as epiphenomenal outcomes, it is imperative that cross-cultural investigators using 21st century research paradigms honed and crafted from strengths-based approaches, interrogate issues of national and cultural identity. Additionally, push-pull factors in migration, acculturative influences, psychological resilience and coping strategies within non-pathologizing frameworks of inclusivity and intersectionality are fodder for empirical research. These holistic perspectives borrow from multiple standpoints in Black Psychology as scholar-activists rejected and deconstructed Eurocentric models in explaining Black psyche and behaviors. The discursive frame around subaltern voices, is that, it deracinates pan-universal theories, splinters and challenges hegemonic assumptions. Moving from the mechanistic, binary constructions placing a premium on only quantitative models with concomitant devaluations of qualitative approaches, this author argues that the kind of cross-cultural research that offers the most qualitatively-rich analysis is ethnography. This approach embraces concepts of lived epistemological realities of participants. As a vibrant cross-cultural tool, it triangulates participant observations, interviews, and case studies. The ethnographic report illuminates the following: the uniqueness of indigenous psychologies; addresses issues of language; and grounds the work within multidisciplinary perspectives offering more cogent analyses of cultural phenomena. Further, even research ensconced in academic knowledge-production should hue to the penultimate, translational goals of nation building, community flourishing, and human capital development.