Racial ignorance

With that being said, last week something terrible did happen, and with the exception of blaming the parents of the young men who robbed father Clyde Harvey at gunpoint, Prime Minister Keith Rowley and I are definitely on the same page; this was a despicable act. I will leave the parent blaming/shaming topic for another time because in all of this, I saw comments on social media that were more despicable than the act itself.

One woman in particular made a remark along the lines of: ah sure if it was a pundit in the East Indian community, Rowley would not say a word. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the quote verbatim because this user blocked me after I called her an idiot for making the comment...

oh well.

I have long shied away from discussing race in my columns, but this is way too ridiculous to disregard. In my view, on a scale measuring the best and worst people in any society, the ones who are divisive and racist are the lowest form of living organisms.

The ignorance of the comment begins by suggesting that there is a community of East Indians residing in Trinidad and Tobago. It is possible that there is a medical doctor residing here who emigrated from a city somewhere in the eastern region of India and there may even be a surviving East Indian indentured labourer, but no one of Indian heritage born in this country is an East Indian.

Similarly, no one of African heritage born in this country is an African. Every time I hear these words, my visceral response is to cringe because the only acceptable demonym to describe a person born in this country is Trinbagonian. I have never used either of those terms to describe any of my fellow Trinbagonians and I religiously attempt to instil this into my students and almost anyone who interacts with me.

The terms are intrinsically divisive because whether or not a person’s surname is Singh or Smith, we are Trinbagonians, first and foremost. Only if there is a need for an identifier, do we include Indo or Afro before the demonym.

I always remember introduction days at my universities in London where students who were clearly not white identified as being British regardless of their parents’ countries of origin. And at my black university in America, African-Americans never referred to themselves as African, it was just American. It is absurd the way so many Trinbagonians speak of national pride, yet still identify themselves as East Indians and Africans.

Nevertheless, it is absolutely baffling that this woman would come to the conclusion that Dr Rowley only condemned the disturbing incident involving Fr Harvey merely because they are both Afro-Trinbagonians. It really is stupidity on an exponential level. Personally, even if the victim was Sat Maharaj inside a mandir, my reaction would be the same and I would expect Dr Rowley to denounce it just as strongly because such sacrilege is wholly unacceptable.

After being away for so long, I honestly believed that race relations had improved, but now that I am home and more aware of what the racial dynamic is on the ground, the entire situation of race – closely linked to party loyalty – is completely abhorrent.

Being a black foreigner with an accent living in America and England where I looked and sounded completely different to the majority, exposed me to a lot of racism, but I expected that; what I did not expect was the extent of the racism in a country where vernacular is the same and skin tones are almost identical between the races.

I experienced racism here too, right before I migrated at 15 when I dated an Indo-Trinbagonian girl who I still consider to be my first love – I still vividly remember the hateful comments hurled towards us (mostly her) as we walked through Chaguanas holding hands. My naiveté is now exposed – things have gotten worse. It became clear during the last general election – my first experience being in the country for one – where I saw an unprecedented amount of hate being spewed on social media; it really was a shock to my consciousness.

If Dr Rowley wants to blame parents for the failure of their children, he should start with those who sow hatred because I know for damn sure that racism is something that children learn at home.

T h o s e are the parents w h o need to h a n g t h e i r heads in shame.