Crypto Racism in Barbados EXPOSED

This video raised its ugly rh head in Barbados last evening.

The more discerning among us are aware racism and bigotry are unwelcome human characteristics present everywhere humans exist. We accept human beings are imperfect creatures. However, it does not mean when these unsavoury qualities show its ugly head that civil society should not promote relevant policies and other measures as requires to nurture tolerance and educate fellow citizens in the interest of growing a wholesome society.

The mouthings from the person in the video is the result of many things which Barbadians have known and been tardy to addressing over the years. Crypto racism has been discussed often enough in this forum- for years. It must be addressed in a structured way. Spouting balderdash is easy for some but it will take much more to excoriate the scourge of racism and bigotry that has metastasize over centuries.

#primeministermiamottley

#civilsociety

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Ahmaud Arbery: Blacks NOT Worth More Than SALT in the Eyes of Some

 

It seems Blacks living in the USA cannot catch a break. In recent months the Black community has been under attack from the marauding COVID 19. This week we learned that in February 2020 two White men shot a young Black man as he was jogging through a White neighbourhood as if he were a target at your neighbourhood shooting range. The fact it has taken two months to gather public attention can be attributed to COVID 19 but are there the usual factors to consider?

There is no doubt that the USA harbours a racist system.

We are quick to point to China, reluctant to do same to the USA.

– David, blogmaster


The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery and the Justice of God

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I turned off the video the first several times I tried to watch it. I couldn’t bear the thought of what I knew would be pictured. Many people, from what I hear, had a similar reaction. The violence was so raw that it was painful to watch. And so many other videos and images, showing similar bloodshed, have emerged over the past several years.

I’m referring, of course, to the video that has emerged in recent days of the killing of 25-year-old African-American man Ahmaud Arbery by two white men in a south Georgia neighborhood. This case will now, with the urging of the governor of Georgia, go to a grand jury to seek justice in this matter. From what reports tell us, Arbery was jogging through the neighborhood and the two men thought he seemed suspicious and took off after him, ultimately shooting and killing him. This was not a case of an interrupted home invasion, nor was it the case of law enforcement personnel involved in an escalating crime situation.

In almost any breaking news story, I usually ask myself, “What sort of information could emerge to make this the opposite of what it seems to me right now?” In this case, I am stumped to think of what that could be. The video seems to show us exactly what we have seen so often in human history: the violence of armed self-styled vigilantes against an unarmed man.

The justice system will proceed, of course, and evidence will be marshaled by the prosecution and by the defense, but there’s little question as to what the investigation will be—into a question of murder.

The system of temporal justice is important here—crucially important—but I am perhaps even more concerned about the sort of weariness that has come upon the country, when we use the word “again” about such a case, as if any happening like this should not immediately shock the conscience. The temptation will be to, as I did at first with the video, just avert our eyes.

Whatever the specifics of this case turn out to be, we do know several things. The first is that the arguments, already bandied about on social media, that “Arbery wasn’t a choirboy” are revolting. We have heard such before with Trayvon Martin and in almost every case since. For all I know, Arbery was a choirboy.

But even if he were the complete opposite (let’s suppose just for the sake of argument), that is no grounds to be chased down and shot by private citizens. There is no, under any Christian vision of justice, situation in which the mob murder of a person can be morally right. Those who claim to have a high view of Romans 13 responsibilities of the state to “wield the sword” against evildoers ought to be the first to see that vigilante justice is the repudiation not just of constitutional due process but of the Bible itself. And, of course, the Bible tells us, from the beginning, that murder is not just an assault on the person killed but on the God whose image he or she bears.

Sadly, though, many black and brown Christians have seen much of this, not just in history but in flashes of threats of violence in their own lives. And some white Christians avert their eyes—even in cases of clear injustice—for fear of being labeled “Marxists” or “social justice warriors” by the same sort of forces of intimidation that wielded the same arguments against those who questioned the state-sponsored authoritarianism and terror of Jim Crow. And so, they turn their eyes.

Now, again, these two men will get their due process, and their day in court. But ought we not to grieve for the family of this young man who is dead at just a quarter-century of life? And should we not lament the fact that there are so many names and faces—from those lynched by domestic terrorists throughout much of the 20th century to the names and faces killed much closer to our own time? Yes.

And, whatever the facts that are offered up in this case as the process moves forward, we ought to be reminded of the threat of violence that has raged inside of humanity since Cain. The courts will decide whether these men will be punished as murderers—and we can pray the courts are right and just in their verdict—but we also ought to remember that many of our black and brown brothers and sisters were killed by mobs or individuals where there was no video to show anything.

The memorial sign marking the murder of Emmett Till had to be replaced with a bulletproof marker because too many people were shooting it up, delighting in the lynching of a man by a bloodthirsty mob. And, like Cain, those who do such things always think no one will ever see. But God says to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” (Gen. 4:9).

And, similarly, Jesus said, “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known” (Lk. 12:2). Whatever is ruled in this case, we know that the blood cries from the ground in countless matters of violence and bloodshed. And God sees and knows. That’s a word of promise for those weary in seeing justice done. And it’s a word of warning for those who would avert their eyes.

 

Guyana, Spawned by Racism

Rickford_burke

Commentary by Rickford Burke

What has the PPP done for Guyana other than spawn racism, civil war, decadence, carnage, corruption, death squads, a narco-state and Roger Khan? 
The PPP was formed in 1950. The party won the elections in 1953 during British rule but was promptly removed from office by the British  government because of its radical, communist ideology and bad governance. Elections were held again in 1957. The PPP won. Shortly thereafter the party experienced a racial split.  Afro-Guyanese accused PPP leaders of neglecting their interests and left the party. The PPP narrowly won the subsequent 1961 elections. However, its racist and discriminatory politics led to racial violence and civil war in Guyana. This is know as the 1964 disturbances or civil war. The party lost the 1964 elections to a coalition of the People’s National Congress and United Force.
After a 28 year hiatus or banishment in the political wilderness, the PPP won the 1992 elections. Again racial tensions and violence ensued because of the PPP’s doctrine of racial triumphalism. Crime and corruption plagued Guyana. The PPP government was involved with death squads. A United Nations investigation verified that they were complicit with the murder of over 400 Afro-Guyanese citizens. The international community estimated that Bharrat Jagdeo’s PPP regime stole over US$20 billion from the treasury. International corruption watchdog, Transparency International, ranked Jagdeo’s PPP regime as one of the most corrupt governments in the world.
The PPP government became ensconced with drug lords including Roger Khan and murder for hire drug gangs. They enabled Khan and his gangs to import drugs from Columbia, Venezuela and other parts of South America, which they shipped to the United States, Europe and the Caribbean with impunity and assistance from PPP government officials. Just like that, the PPP turned Guyana in a narco-state and international drug transshipment center. Functionally the PPP drove Guyana into failed statehood.
Amidst this crescendo of decadence, carnage and national implosion, Bharrat Jagdeo and his PPP government were working give away part of Essequibo to Venezuela to settle the border dispute. We are still to find out if they were to derive financial gain from this give away of our country to our enemy. The nation gasped and breathed a collective sigh of relief and elation when the people voted the PPP out of government on May 11, 2015, and bit them good riddance!
The most objective of analysts will conclude, as is patently obvious, that historically, every instance of PPP governance of Guyana has been catastrophic for our nation. From radical communist policies that led to its expulsion from office, apartheid, racism and civil war; to torture and genocide against blacks, monumental corruption and state capture,  destruction  and conversion of Guyana to a narco-state and eventually failed statehood. All the PPP has left is its tattered, sordid history of atrocities and murder, corruption and destruction.
I challenge anyone to examine Guyana’s contemporary history and inform the Guyanese people what the PPP has done to advance Guyana’s development; particularly during its last 23 years in government. Its single accomplishment is building the Berbice River Bridge, with a 1940s design. They structured this bridge project expressly to curtail commerce in New Amsterdam for the benefit of its ethnic base on the Corentyne. They had the audacity to construct this bridge with money from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) pension funds of hard working Guyanese taxpayers, but which they disguised as private investment. This criminal rape and a rip-off of hard working Guyanese could have only been perfected by con artists at Freedom House.  It is no wonder, therefore, that the PPP presidential in on trail for 19 fraud charges in connection with another fraud scheme.
Pregnant with unrestrained avarice and greed, the Freedom House mafia is now acting like a bull in a China shop to once again corruptly wrest the governance of our country away from the people. They are desperate to get their dirty hands on Guyana’s oil money. We Guyanese; especially our youth, must build a resistance. Stop these thieves from grabbing our oil money. Repel this evil force that spits fires of hate, bigotry and destruction. Resist this same evil force that drove our nation into civil war in 1963. Every youth, who wants to Guyana develop and not destroyed, must join the resistance against the evil PPP.
We must be organized to win. This is why everyone must register and everyone must vote. Voting is the weapon an indomitable generation used to defeat the evil force that caused the 1964 civil war. Voting is the weapon we used to defeat this evil force in 2015.  Voting must be our weapon of choice to defeat the PPP in 2020. The resistance begins anew. Rise up and register. Rise up and vote. Our lives, our country depend on it!

The Real Race Issues in Barbados

Submitted by the Secretariat of the PEOPLES  EMPOWERMENT  PARTY

David Comissiong

David Comissiong, President of the Peoples Empowerment Party

The issue of race is ever present in Barbados, and surely underlies the amazing  public furor that has arisen over the recent crowning of a white Miss Barbados beauty queen.

And so, we now take the opportunity to revisit the issue of racism in Barbados, and to share with the public a number of pertinent questions that Mr David Comissiong, President of the Peoples Empowerment Party, posed to the government appointed ‘Committee On National Reconciliation’ way back in the year 1999.

These questions – as relevant today as they were seventeen years ago – are as follows:-

  1. To what extent does the false notion of Black or African inferiority still infect Black, White,  and Asiatic Barbadians? If this is the case, how do we correct this state of affairs?
  2. Are there Churches, religious practices and theologies in Barbados which foster and / or perpetuate the false and discredited notions of Black inferiority, subordination and dependence on non-Blacks?
  3. To what extent is the distribution of land in Barbados racially skewed and inequitable? If this is so, are specific governmental corrective measures required? Is there a need for “Alien Landholdings legislation”?
  4. Is the education system doing an adequate job of imparting to our students information about the history and achievements of the various racial and ethnic groups which make up our population? Is the news media of Barbados doing an adequate job of providing the majority Black population with news and information about Africa and peoples of African descent?
  5. To what extent are there racially segregationist regulations and/or practices in place in the clubs, beaches, hotels and social institutions of Barbados? Are governmental corrective measures required?
  6. To what extent do businesses in Barbados indulge in racial discrimination in their employment and procurement policies and practices? To what extent is there evidence of race-based business monopolies and unfair race-based business practices designed to eliminate competition?
  7. What is the precise state of the distribution of wealth in Barbados across race and class lines? Is there a need for new re-distributive policies?
  8. To what extent is there evidence that the lending policies and practices of banks and other financial institutions are based on racial considerations? Is there a need for governmental intervention?
  9. To what extent do the major secular institutions of Barbados – the law courts, police force, office of the Governor General, etc – still retain elements of an institutional culture that is alienating to Black and/or working class Barbadians?
  10. To what extent are the foreign films, videos and music coming into Barbados propagating racially demeaning notions and sensibilities?
  11. To what extent is the racist historical tradition of the stigmatization and criminalization of the business activities of small black business-persons still in evidence?
  12. To what extent do we have a sense of consciousness of the great moral wrong of slavery, and of the inhuman cruelties and disabilities that were inflicted upon Black people? Are we prepared to support a campaign for Reparations?
  13. Is there the need for a conscious effort to rectify the imbalance deliberately built into our national culture by investigating, re-evaluating and re-appropriating aspects of African culture?

If the current storm-in-a-teacup motivates us to address our minds to these vexed yet very relevant questions, then something positive would have been achieved!

The Black Caps Versus the Black Lackeys

Submitted by Pachamama

President of the West Indies Cricket Board Dave Cameron

President of the West Indies Cricket Board Dave Cameron

We watch a boring cricket test match as the cultural dead-endedness of Caribbean societies is demonstrated through cricket. Cricket as a cultural expression of the British was never going to be susceptible to the radical transformation, in the Caribbean, it faced after the cultural revolution in North American, giving them baseball. For the Blacks with White masks at the WICBC and amongst the elites in the Caribbean are even more protective of this traditional British game than even the very British themselves.

Former players, administrators and newly minted Black lackeys get to trot out their knighthoods when cricket is playing. For them it is in the service of Queen and Empire that a nonsense of a rule could prevent Sunil Narine, the world’s top spinner, from playing for the West Indies but there is no problem for Corey Anderson, who was at the same IPL semi-finals, to be playing for the Black Caps. So a Black Cap can play while a West Indian player is to be sanctioned by the over-zealous plantation overseers of cricket in the West Indies. The WICB(C) will allow an Englishman to be a third empire. A man who has a personal interest in promoting English cricket. So West Indies bowlers could be outing people and all the marginal decisions go against us. All this for the love of pound and crown by Black and Indian Caribbean lackeys from Jamaica to Georgetown!

Nowhere in the world are people particularly interested in test cricket. And it must be allowed to meet its long awaited death. Nobody goes to watch it. TV audiences are never very impressive. It cannot attract pay-per-view revenues. The marketers at the WICB(C) must be infantile to allow such a strategy to take root. So much so that even when test cricket is aired free of cost only the diehards show any sustained interest.

And this is the strategic vision a backward Board can now come up with. The brains cannot be on the Board! What would it take for Caribbean peoples to run these nutters out of town, absent their heads?

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Soccer and Global Racism

Submitted by Pachamama

...A time when Blacks have made some progress but where the majority of peoples of colour, throughout, the world are still largely dispossessed...

A time when Blacks have made some progress but where the majority of peoples of colour, throughout, the world are still largely dispossessed

The World Cup is just around the corner and as Brazil prepares for this signal event of soccer, Brazilian players, of distinctively African origins, continue to face the leading edge of racism in all of Europe. In fact, all Black or African soccer players have been facing, increasingly, incidences of overt racism in the seat of the White race. When we say racism we mean the system as scientifically defined. We are not particularly concerned about personal likes or dislikes, we are here defining racism as the recent and historic power of White people to enforce social, legal, economic; cultural systems; which are anathema to the interest of peoples of colour. It is a system, or a set of systems which attaches more value to White people based entirely on the colour of their skin. This is the vast phenomena that we are interrogating, in broad terms and as it relates to soccer. We shall use Dani Alves as a case but there are tens of thousands with similar import.

This galloping rise of racism in Europe is associated with the rise of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, ultra-rightism, and White nationalism. It comes at a time when the economic circumstances are getting worse for large numbers of White people. Black people are more used to these deprivations which Whites are now starting to feel, in greater numbers, for the first time in many years. It continues to appear as though White people in much of Europe see hopelessness as the order of the day. It comes out of the long pretence that we were moving towards a colourless world.

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RACISM Lingers On

Submitted by Looking Glass

Not in Barbados!

First congratulations to the newly appointed Governor General and Madame Loretta: another tribute to location.

Yes there is and will always be racism even among Whites. For some Whites it is a reaction to their lower class status especially after being given a title by a Black government. Blacks too are in practical terms most guilty of racism. For us it is a convenient excuse that enables us to blame others for our shortcomings. Some Whites who did not marry Blacks passed on financial and other inheritance to their black mistresses and their offspring. It led to the Black Class System (Re Comments To Rescue and Rebuild) within which those with brown-skin were considered not to be “One uh We”, treated like Whites and discriminated against. But no one talks about black racism which in many ways was more vicious than white racism.

Some left high school with a birth certificate, worked for a mixed-race owned company and never reached management level. Now one low class White soul pontificates about white racism. Does marriage to a high-brown render one anti racist? His observations suggest he knows nothing about our history, less about socio-political and economic dynamics and is very untruthful.

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Must We Face The Truth?

Submitted by Charles Knighton

Sir Roy Trotman

When Epicurus wrote “Any philosopher’s argument which does not therapeutically treat human suffering is worthless” he showed, like Sir Roy Trotman, that even the very wise sometimes say foolish things. The purpose of all serious intellectual inquiry is surely to enable us to see things more truthfully, whether that soothes or disturbs us. As unfortunate as Sir Roy’s comments were however, according to some they provide another opportunity for Barbados to intelligently discuss the subject of race and truthfully deal with an issue that erupts geyser-like from time to time, occasioning brief comment before subsiding once again to simmer just below the surface.

But why place such a high value on truth? For sure, sometimes the truth might set you free, but on other occasions it might destroy you, shattering comforting illusions that make life tolerable. As T.S. Eliot memorably put it: “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”

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Slaver Monument of John Newton To Be Setup In St. Kitts : Open Letter To Prime Minister Of St Kitts

John Newton

Petition launched to stop the set up of a monument to John Newton who visited St. Kitts to sell slaves and later turned Christian abolitionist  – Reproduced from email received from Gilbert Léonard

A small Baptist church in St. Kitts has been convinced to set up a monument to John Newton who came here to sell slaves and later turned Christian abolitionist.  This is happening at the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Sandy Point.  An English couple convinced them to do this after the Anglican and Methodist churches in Sandy Point turned them down.  About 3 years ago I tried to convince them that this was not a right thing to do in an independent black Caribbean country.  Much of the information is being supplied by this couple whose name I cannot remember and they are using the film Amazing Grace as a way of convincing people with no concept of their own history.  I thought the whole thing had died down but I heard that the English people are coming here next week to put things in place.  I am convinced that Newton abandoned the slave trade because his ventures in it had failed.  He took up the priesthood as a means to a regular income.  His association with the abolitionists may or may not have been heartfelt but his association with the Caribbean and with Sandy point in particular was as a slaver.

Open letter to PM of St Kitts about Slaver monument in St Kitts.

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The Recent UK Riots: A Different Perspective

Submitted by Yardbroom

Mark Duggan - Photo Credit: UK Guardian

A 29 year old black man Mark Duggan travelling in a mini cab was stopped by the Police in Tottenham.  In the ensuing confrontation Duggan was shot by a member of the Metropolitan’s Police CO 19 Unit.  This incident is being investigated by the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) but there are allegations that a weapon converted to fire live ammunition was found in the mini cab.

As is often the case rumours spread quickly; however Duggan’s family decided that adequate information was not forthcoming from the police and a march was organized.  Within this peaceful march, elements of society who consider themselves disadvantaged decided to confront the police. It should be said at the outset that the family of Mark Duggan have condemned the subsequent riots as has the black Tottenham member of Parliament David Lammy who appealed for calm.

Over a period of four days riots spread across the UK, where young people hoodie attired and faces covered, broke into properties, stole goods, burnt buildings to the ground and there were the inevitable fatalities.  The resultant court appearances confirms the fact that both white and black were involved in the riots and theft in the main, were in areas with  sizeable black populations.

Why the confrontations with the police?

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Did Gline Clarke Make A Racist Statement?

Mindful of all these opportunities, and as part of Government‟s programme to diversify its economic sectors to assist in further GDP development, we have decided to partner with authorities in the motor racing sector to set out a programme for the further development of the sport in Barbados.

To this end, Government will shortly approve an agreement to lease the Bushy Park Facility to the Barbados Rally Club to facilitate a full upgrade of the race track and adjoining facilities to international racing standards. Resources for this upgrade work are expected to come in part from the International Racing Federation (FIA). It is my understanding that Barbados is already the first country to have taken advantage of the FIA Institute‟s grant for facility development funding to improve race track facilities.

Extracted from the Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposal for 2011

The above government proposal was listed in the just concluded budget presentation to which Gline Clarke, the member of parliament for St. George North had a surprising reaction which has evoked public comment. Clarke’s comment forced his colleague George Payne MP to issue an apology on behalf of the Barbados Labour Party. Tiredness was cited as the reason for the comment by Clarke .

Listen and be the judge.