Anti-racism crusaders should think about all ethnic groups

Feb 04, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
After foraging through Roger Williams’ rambling in his letter, “Kissoon is highlighting the fact of racism” (KN, 10-02-13), one quickly detects Mr. Williams’ periphrastic attempts in appearing intellectual in his one-sided foray into the problem of racism in Guyana.
Mr. Williams is rightly concerned about racism; the jist of his letter is summarized in his seemingly passionate statement, “racism in every form must be condemned”.  One, however, questions the sincerity of the letter writer about his quest to do away with racism, as the letter hovers on the “level of overt and covert racism heaped upon Afro-Guyanese post 1992”.
Mr. Williams had appeared genuine in his desire to overcome the cancer of racism in Guyana but this exploit catapulted into self-destruction with the repeated mention and support of the now despised Kean Gibson booklet, The Cycle of Racial Oppression in Guyana.
By aligning himself with, and desperately trying to defend the bizarre  ”scholarship” of Ms. Gibson, Mr. Williams has unwittingly exposed himself on the despised racist tabernacle on which Ms. Gibson stands – the ultimate paradox of letter writer’s enterprise to do away with racism!
I refuse to address the booklet author as “Dr. Gibson”; the University which conferred her that title would be less than bemused after examining that booklet – which would earn a certain ‘F’ grade in a Linguistics 101 course at any respectable university anywhere in the world.  One wonders how Ms. Gibson still retains her place as Senior Lecturer at UWI Cave Hill campus in Barbados – after the outcry from the academic community worldwide.  (For those who don’t know, Ms. Gibson used comments given by the callers to call-in TV shows, comments which she supposedly heard on the streets, and letters to the local media to ‘prove’ that Hindus have a hate agenda against Africans in Guyana; there are other blatant flaws of the booklet that are too numerous to list in this letter).
Freddie Kissoon denounced Ms. Gibson’s booklet as “extremely poor… a propagandistic attempt at revisionist history, … and a descent into everyday demagoguery and not a work based on research using scholarly methodologies.”  (Mr. Williams claimed that Mr. Kissoon has been “transformed” since his conjecture when Gibson’s booklet surfaced.  I doubt it; Mr. Kissoon is too solid an intellectual to change his assessment of that junk).
I do believe that both gentlemen are sincere in their clamouring crusade against racism.  But with their pervasive rhetoric against racism, you’d think they would quickly denounced the KN editorial of Jan. 31, which chided the criminals for attacking their ‘own’.  (Speaking of the unfortunate Oscar Clarke shooting, the editorial sulked, “The perpetrators come from that community; they come from the homes where they would have heard their parents sing adulation to the party.  Did the perpetrators not know that the home was that of a person who served the party for which their parents walked the streets in protest?”)  Is the KN condoning racism if victims are of a certain tribe?
Mr. Williams and Mr. Kissoon may mean well, but their grand faux pas emanate as they both have been addressing racism from only the angle of the African Guyanese; they have virtually ignored the plights and pains of other ethnic groups in the country.  They, like other ‘Rights’ spokespersons, have consistently painted the Indians as the oppressors and the Black people as the victims.
What about the Amerindians – who, in my opinion, suffer most from racial discrimination in Guyana?  And how about the racial discrimination against Indians post 1992; their gripes are also deep and numerous, and should also be acknowledged in the holistic equation?  What is the composition of Indians in the public sector employment, the army, the police, and umpteen government related outfits, for example?
A friend was travelling with me to Guyana a few years ago, and remarked in the arrival queue at the airport that it appeared that we were visiting an African country, as all the immigration officers were African Guyanese.
The number of Indians being given scholarships, government jobs, contracts, etc perturbs Mr. Kissoon and Mr. Williams.  Even those partial to the Indian cause often recoil at the mention of Indians being awarded a greater number of jobs, house lots, etc., compared to Africans, for example.  But one need not be conscience stricken, when one considers the ethnic composition in Guyana.
Approximately 43% of the people are of Indian descent, whereas Afro Guyanese are about 30%.  So if 100 jobs, scholarships, or contracts and each applicant is considered ‘equal’ in qualification, experience, suitability, sustainability, etc., then it is reasonable to expect 43 of those applicants would be Indian, 30 to be Africans, and so on.
I salute Bro. Eusi Kwayana, as he has been the level-headed standout in addressing the race issue in the country.  He has empathized with the Amerindians, felt with the Africans, fought for the Indians, and defends all  Guyanese.
When crusaders become more fair and objective in their concerns and assessments, more Guyanese would start to listen, and it would be a great step in the right direction towards healing, reconciliation, harmony and fairness.
Devnanand Bhagwan

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