Is there tangible evidence of racial discrimination or ethnic marginalisation in Guyana?

Mar 04, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
A marginalised population, according to Mary Morgan, specialist in private sector development in developing and post conflict countries, is “a group that experiences systemic discrimination or unequal access to power and resources in society”. Systemic discrimination, she defines as “widespread practices, laws or attitudes which are viewed as neutral and sometimes acceptable, but establish inequality and disadvantage for certain groups of people in society”.
This is not the case in Guyana, since Guyanese, regardless of ethnicity are constitutionally protected from any form of discrimination and acts of racial hostility. Also, through lifelong interaction and socialisation with different ethnic groups, we are, as a people, culturally graced to embrace and respect the cultural diversity of our Guyanese brothers and sisters. Nonetheless, there are claims by some that young Afro-Guyanese are being intentionally marginalised and oppressed. This is based on their claim that the unemployment rate among this group is high. To date, they have not been able to show or prove this and render to the public, a distinctive figure of what the unemployment rate of this group really is.
They have also not presented to the public, a comparative study of the unemployment rate of the different ethnic groups in Guyana. Over all, unemployment is not limited to just one group, and it certainly is not a result of discrimination against that group. There are many different factors that account for a country’s unemployment rate. Is there tangible evidence of racial discrimination or ethnic marginalisation in Guyana? Unemployment is experienced by all ethnic groups in Guyana. It is a direct implication of an ailing world economy, upon which Guyana is heavily dependent.
Are race and ethnicity barriers to an individual’s progress and development in this country? The distinction between the haves and the have-nots in Guyana is not necessarily drawn along racial lines, but rather on class lines that permeate all the ethnic groups.
And whatever these African leaders’ motives for inciting this feeling of racial marginalisation are, to date, there is no evidence to support their claims. There are unemployed Indians, Africans and Amerindians in Guyana. Guyana’s fundamental problem is that we are blinded to the true motives of those that seek to create division in Guyana, through racial incitement. This makes us easily susceptible to racial hostility.
Nigel Green

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Is there tangible evidence of racial discrimination or ethnic marginalisation in Guyana?

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