Entry Questions
Have you had the opportunity of visiting or staying an extended period in your or your family’s ancestral homeland? How that experience help you understand your identity better (and perhaps your notions of blackness beyond the US)?
Bio
Kahlil Haywood is a writer, editor, and educator. He has been a content creator and manager for over a decade on different online platforms. Much of his life’s work involves the amplification of Black voices and perspectives. The work constantly questions how we can all seek to be better for one another as a people. Most recently, Kahlil brought his renowned column “Damn, He Got a Point” to EBONY Magazine. He also currently functions as an editor with Blavity Inc.
Historical Background: Panamá-US Relationships
The modern history of both nations, after all, began in 1903, when Teddy Roosevelt paved the way for building his transoceanic canal by fomenting the creation of an “independent” Panama, one that was severed from Colombian territory. (Juan González Harvest of Empire, 150)
The Panama Canal has long been acknowledged as one of the technical marvels of the twentieth century, a triumph of Yankee vision, audacity, and engineering that enabled a massive expansion of oceanic commerce and helped to unite North American society by sharply reducing the time needed for the transit of people, goods, and information between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. (150)
Panamanians started arriving in the United States during the 1950s, most of them settling in Brooklyn, New York. By l965, they numbered between fifteen thousand and thirty thousand, yet they went virtually unnoticed by the white society. Most were descendants of West Indian canal workers, and they assimilated rapidly into New York’s African American neighborhoods. (149)
Presentation(s)
Chain Reaction Activity
Discuss the notion of “paraíso negro/ black paradise” developed by Haywood:
QUESTION ONE
Khalil Haywood starts his essay by saying “When people think about a Spanish speaker they don’t necessarily rush to think about someone who looks like me. You know, a brown-skinned, kinky-haired man, at least with my hair grown out.”
Elaborate on Haywood’s identity formation as an Afro-Latino while growing up in a predominantly West Indian community in Brooklyn.
QUESTION TWO
Khalil Haywood writes: “I’ve had the privilege of going back to my family’s homeland and seeing firsthand things that many others haven’t had the opportunity to see here in the States. Paraíso is a lot of things. There’s beauty in it. It’s peaceful- a place we created a lot of fun. But make no mistake what it really is at its core: Black”
Thinking of this quote, describe some of the takeaways Haywood gets from traveling and experiencing life in Paraíso, Panamá.
QUESTION THREE
In the last section of the essay, Haywood argues that “We have the knowledge that white people can speak various languages, and we have never batted an eye. Yet, Black people historically seem to have been made fit under one umbrella many times.”
What things make Haywood hopeful that times are changing and people are understanding the diversity of Black folk? What type of social work needs to keep happening to improve this awareness and embrace inclusivity?
QUESTION FOUR
What aspects of Panamá’s environment did he highlight? How does his understanding of the environment incorporate Black people’s daily practices?
QUESTION FIVE
How does the environment in Panamá fortify his Afro-Latino pride?