"Since 1965, West Indians have been emigrating to the United States in record numbers. In New York City, home to the greatest concentration of West Indians, Caribbean immigrants now constitute one of the largest and most culturally significant ethnic groups. Caribbean New York, by showing how the new immigration is reshaping American race relations, sheds much-needed light on factors that underlie some of the city's explosive racial confrontations. Philip Kasinitz examines how two forces--racial solidarity and ethnic distinctiveness--have helped to shape the identity of New York's West Indian community. He compares 'new' (post-1965) immigrants with West Indians who arrived earlier in the century, and looks in detail at the economic, political, and cultural roles that Afro-Caribbean immigrants have played in the city during each period."--Page 4 of cover