Despite being constantly labeled a racist, I will not stop being Black or stop defending Blackness against unwarranted attack By Dr. David Hinds This letter is overdue. Although I have difficulty writing about myself, I feel a sense of justification today. There is a larger point to be made, I think. There are times I read things in the press which profile a person I don’t recognize. Most times I dismiss them as political venom, but sometimes I wonder whether the authors don’t actually believe the things they write. Always, I wonder about the young people who bother to read that stuff. I started my political activism in the 1970s as a young teenager in Buxton, initially as a cultural activist and later as a member of the WPA. By the time I joined the WPA my sense of myself as an African was fairly well advanced. My early mentors in this regard included Kwame Apata, Kwesi Nkofi, Kimani Nehusi, Ras Michael Jeune and Eusi Kwayana. Schoolteachers such as Clyde Roopchand, Wavney Seaforth, Yvonne Phenella Abrams, Henry Hinds and, Paul King, among others taught me about an education that was broader and larger than schoolroom learning. Looking back I think my sense of worth, despite being Black and poor, developed in their classes. All of this was happening in a Buxton where African drums rolled continuously, both literally and figuratively as Bob Marley, the Mighty Sparrow, Viv Richards, Walter Rodney and our own Buxtonion, June Marcia Griffith, were crafting a new Caribbean popular narrative out of what poet, Martin Carter, called the “Niggeryard of yesterday.” My own aunt, who raised us in the absence of my mom who had migrated in search of a “better life for us”, critically, never warned me away from Black Power and Politics. It was difficult to be a Black youth in Guyana and the Caribbean in the 1970s and not be conscious and proud of your Blackness. “Black is Beautiful” was more than a slogan; it was a way of life. However, that consciousness did not blind some of us to the excesses of the Black political elites of the day in Guyana and the wider Caribbean. In that regard many of my generation are indebted to the teachings and example of a generation of African-Caribbean thinkers and activist, particularly Walter Rodney and Eusi Kwayana who encouraged us to be true to our Blackness but be equally scornful of Black political excesses and domination. That would, therefore, form the basis of my attraction to the WPA’s multiracial politics. I could be my Black self, with all my African pride and dignity, and not be afraid to stand up to a Black Government or join in the defense of the Indian Guyanese community which felt wronged by that government. That is what drove me and two other Buxtonions to join the Workers Stage, a PPP Cultural group, led by the Hon Gail Teixeria who introduced me to Black South African literature. Joining the Workers Stage was a conscious decision to show solidarity with the Indian Guyanese community through drama. It is an experience that I cherish to this day. Despite the developments in Guyana since 1992 whereby an Indian Guyanese authoritarian government replaced the African Guyanese authoritarian government that we undermined and helped to bring down, I do not regret my actions then and would do it again if the circumstances were the same. East Indian political domination today is no reason to regret the fight against African political domination yesterday. However, were I to remain quiet about today’s domination, I would be guilty of the worst form of political hypocrisy. Some people ignore that in their quest to demean and demonize. This brings me to the real purpose of my missive. I just read, in one of the newspapers for the umpteenth time, my name being used in the same sentence with “racism” or “race card.” I have seen it so often that I should not be overly concerned. And I am not. What I am concerned about is the fear that is being driven into Black minds, especially the youth—if you dare talk about race or Blackness, you are racist and want to cause racial trouble. In our Guyana, today, any talk of Black anything condemns you to the crazy fringe which is intent on bringing race war to Guyana. Most of the time the discourse on race frustrates. Racial consciousness is called racism. Racial identity is deemed anti-Guyanese. Prejudice is called racism. Victims of racism are called upon to prove racism. We live in a highly racialized society that is encouraged to silence race. Those who want to silence discussion on race generally want to practice racism without it being detected. After all, if a society is racially illiterate, it cannot identify racism. Racism does not exist without power. Racism is when the representatives of one ethnic group use institutional power such as the power of the state to control or dominate another group or to turn ethnic prejudices and stereotypes into public policy and government action or to use the formal institutions of power to defend one group and attack the other group. That person who wrote about the PPP directing the police to kill Black youth has not the slightest understanding of how racism operates. The PPP government does not have to direct the police to kill Africans; I would be surprised if it does. But, as the civilian directors of the armed forces, it can direct them not to do it or face consequences. To the best of my knowledge it has not demonstrably done so. Some have said that I have race on my mind. I do. I do, because I am an African and race was created to justify and continue the enslavement of my fore parents. And in the aftermath of slavery, Africans have continued to be disproportionately victimized by institutional racism wherever they reside. Having race on my mind is my first defense against racism. It will stay there. Yes, I believe that African Guyanese have not been treated fairly since 1992. And I feel a sense of duty to fight on their behalf and with them to reverse that, partly because I an African Guyanese, but partly because I come from a tradition of standing in the defense of the powerless regardless of ethnicity. So, despite being constantly labeled a racist, I will not stop being Black or stop defending Blackness against unwarranted attack or stop encouraging Blacks to struggle to do better or to continue to fight for a shared Guyana based on equal justice. Those who think that asserting ones Blackness is the same as asserting anti-Indianess are the ones who need to be watched carefully. I started in the 1970s being firmly against domination by any race and I am still driven by that. I don’t mind being judged, among other things, by the color of my skin—just judge me fairly. I like being Black, Guyanese and Caribbean.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 08:35:00 +0000
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