In the early ’90s, young Tiffanie Drayton and her siblings left Trinidad and Tobago to join their mother in New Jersey, where she’d been making her way as a domestic worker, eager to give her children a shot at the American Dream.
But it didn't take long for financial realities to upset that dream. As housing costs rose, Tiffanie and her family were uprooted, moving from Texas to Florida then back to New Jersey. Drayton's experience in a variety of American neighborhoods leads her to ask listeners (in her exchange with Steve Tarter) as to why black neighborhoods that bear names like Martin L. King Avenue are often crime-ridden while others are safe? Where schools often lack the resources of schools that serve predominantly white children.
Ultimately, exhausted by the pursuit of a “better life” in America, 20-year-old Tiffanie returned to Tobago where she has found that she's able to enjoy the simple freedom of being black without fear. It's also a place where she imagines a different future for her children.
"Black American Refugee" examines some of the historical ramifications of American racism while relating the impact of white supremacy--even if it's unintentional--has on people of color.
Drayton may have left the United States to live but she hasn't stopped working to further racial justice in America. Her interview seeks to galvanize listeners into action, she said by sharing the irony of someone who had to search beyond the “land of the free” to realize their own freedom.
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