Indeed, the Black Lives Matter protests now rocking America and the world have opened up renewed and uncomfortable conversations about the history of privilege, racism, and the experiences and identities of Black people in America.

However, this soon changed as their numbers increased and many first and second-generation Caribbean immigrant children with indirect ties to the Caribbean or Africa for that matter, also without an American slave history past, identified themselves as Black.

For example, there are some Americans (and first and second-generation immigrants from the Caribbean) who identify as both, and some who prefer "Black" over African American because they can't actually trace their lineage to American slavery.

I started by saying that I'm first and foremost a Black man from the Caribbean now living in America because it's a recognition of a much larger family - community if you will - of Black people and all of the heritage, nuances and similarities that come with that characterization even with differences of experiences.

To be sure there are many, many similarities as there are differences between Black people born in America and those from the Caribbean.