Recognising Selves in Others: Situating Dougla Manoeuvrability as Shared Mixed-Race Ontology

ABSTRACT

In this paper, which is part of a larger qualitative study, we contemplate how mixed race selves are recognised and recognise others. Through our interrogation of the dougla, a distinct Caribbean mixed race identity, the product of contact between peoples brought to the Caribbean to build plantation economies in colonial societies, particularly former freed African slave labour and newly imported Indian indentured labour, we assert that mixedness is a shared ontology, made recognisable by not only genotypical and phenotypical evidence, but by the distinct experience of occupying spaces of ambiguity, ambivalence and/or inbetweeness. We argue the ontological experience of inbetweeness and the act of recognising selves in others rests in the active management of selves invoked by this state of being, what we conceptualise as manoeuvrability. Manoeuvrability, which takes the consideration of shared experiences of mixedness beyond static states to the dynamic engagement with self and other, facilitates in its dynamism the plausible mutual recognition that we suggest allows for speaking across differences.

KEYWORDS:

• Caribbean
• dougla
• inbetweeness
• mixed race
• biracial
• multiracial
• ontology
• manoeuvrability
• symbolic interactionism
• contact

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Sue Ann Barratt is a Lecturer at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. She is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, holding a BA in Media and Communication Studies with Political Science, MA Communication Studies, and PhD Interdisciplinary Gender Studies. Her current research areas are interpersonal interaction, social media, gender and ethnic identities, beauty and body image, Feminist studies and Carnival studies. She is dedicated to gender awareness and sensitivity training through face-to-face sessions and mass media outreach.

Aleah N. Ranjitsingh is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Caribbean Studies and Women Studies Programs at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York (CUNY). She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a minor in English from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York (CUNY) and a Master of Arts degree in Political Science from the same institution. She also holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies from the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. Her research focuses on: gender and development, masculinity studies, mixed-race studies, political economy and gender and sexuality.