Emancipation and violence in our communities

Aug 10, 2014 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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– Part Two of an address by Nigel Hughes

This week we continue our examination and I offer some solutions for effecting change.

So to return to the issue of the face of violence in the African Guyanese community;
What are some of the consequences of violence in our communities?
(a) Poor socialization. The concept of disrespect or “dissing” being the basis for physical violence must go.  There are too many young African males sitting in jail because somebody disrespected them. The concept of “disrespect” probably originates from the fact that all the young African male has is his reputation on the street, so he is prepared to die or kill to protect it.
(b) Poor social skills. In light of the absence of both parents in the home and the long hours during which the female head of the house is forced to be away from home as a result of job or economic opportunities, this has led to children being left to their own devices, which invariably leads to unsupervised or poorly supervised time which leads to early exposure to criminal activity and other undesirable pursuits. The absence of a parent or an elder in the home results in the young person adopting what seems to be a successful culture, which is the life of a Don and drug pusher, as that is the person who drives the fancy cars and gets all the girls. There is no other competing image which the young person is exposed to.
(c) Poor education. The performance of the African student in primary and secondary school has been steadily declining. Last year Guyana won five of the eight awards for top performances in the Caribbean and not one of them was an African Guyanese. 2013 was not the exception.
(d) Poor education and even poorer socialization leads immediately to disadvantage on the job market after school.  How much of a chance does the young African Guyanese have of securing a job when they lack the education and adequate social skills to perform creditably at the job interview, and this is before we address of inbuilt biases against them.
THE GUYANA POLICE FORCE
Why are we surprised when the police enter our communities and unleash the most vicious forms of violence?  Most of the police men and women are African Guyanese, yet it is the same force which is responsible for the deaths of several unarmed and armed African Guyanese males.
The obvious question is: where do the policemen and policewomen come from?
They come from the same communities which have faced the difficulties I referred to above. Communities who have witnessed the most violent abuse of power by officers of the Guyana Police Force without ever being called to account; communities where there was an absence of hope.
It is from these communities that we select our young policemen, put them in a uniform, clothe them with the full power of the law, and then by some magic, expect them to be behave differently from their predecessors.
You may recall the old definition of lunacy. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
WHERE DO WE START AND WHAT DO WE DO?
We start by admitting that we are in crisis. This opens the door for us to examine the issue and articulate solutions among our Churches, service organizations, our unions, the NGO community and political organisations, so that we can implement them.
We must then address our “collective numbness” or our “collective inability” to respond to black-on-black violence. Our general approach seems to be one of resignation and inevitability.  Black-on-black violence must be denormalized.
We must stop being expectant and accepting of black-on-black violence.
Here are some solutions I have adopted from the American author Tom Burrell:
1. Our silence must be broken, inaction must be reversed and the value of every black life must be reinforced.
2.  Let us resolve to be just as loud and just as angry about death related to black-on-black violence as we are when a young black person is killed by the hands of the State or another race.
3. Life. Because we are all worth it.  Burrell says “All too often, we think that life is worthless and that we cannot recover from our pain. What we must realize is that it is worth sticking around because, with hope, we never know how far we can go. The first step toward saving others’ lives is to appreciate the value of our own”.
4. Turn a life of tension into a life intention. Part of what creates our stress and disconnection with humanity is that we do not feel we have a purpose in life. If we can take that negative energy (tension) and turn it into positive energy (intention), then there is a great chance for our recovery.
5. De-stress. We must get over the stress and anger that keep us killing one another and keep us from reaching our full potential as human beings.
6.  Life is a prerequisite to everything else. Value it. The finality of death precludes any hope for positive change. Stay alive so that you’ll have a chance to truly live.
Additionally,
1. We must advocate that this is a national problem and not just a problem for the African Guyanese community. After all is said and done, the horrendous legacy of slavery is alive and well in Guyana.
2. We must ourselves, design programmes which not only address these problems, but provide solutions. These programmes must not only encourage our young people to participate, but must provide the means for them to actively and meaningfully participate in their own growth and development.
3. We must demand that the government institute the programmes we have designed and create the agencies for implementation.
4. We must change the criminal justice system so that the emphasis is not so much on incarcerating our young people, but keeping them out of the places of incarceration.
5. We have to change the way we spend our money.
6. We have to change the public image and perception of the African Guyanese. We must ensure that the media is populated with positive images of African Guyanese, positive endeavours of African Guyanese. We must educate ourselves, our journalists, our media persons, about the success in our communities.
7. We must create hope, even in the most difficult of circumstances.
8. We have to change the way the police force operates.  We must compel the Guyana Police Force to create a different relationship with the African community. This requires a total rethink of its role.  The role of the police force has not changed from its colonial mandate where its primary task was to protect the propertied and expatriate class and their interests – now translated to the Governing party’s interest. It must be reorganized to one where it truly serves the community.
9. The force must begin to mentor and work with African communities.
10. This will require new ideas and new approaches by the Guyana Police Force.
11. We must challenge those who lead our churches, our mosques, our temples and our places of worship to preach a new way for our people.
12. We must develop spaces in our communities where our young people can gather to learn and acquire knowledge and life skills to equip them for a modern world.
13. We must get rid of the culture of “dissing” and disrespect, which leads to so many  unnecessary deaths.
14. We must create mentorship programmes in all communities and keep track of the mentees, long after they have graduated.
15. We must change the economic and social environment in our communities. We must rehabilitate them so they are a constant source of encouragement and upliftment.
Even Tupac Shakur, the urban inner city young man who many perceived as beyond redemption, captured and appreciated the urgency and necessity of change for survival when he sang:
“We gotta make a change.
It’s time for us as a people to start makin’ some changes.
Let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live
And let’s change the way we treat each other
You see, the old way wasn’t working so it’s on us to do
What we gotta do, to survive.”
On Father’s Day June 15th 2008 Barack Obama, while he was only a candidate in the US Presidential election said,
“Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important… But if we are honest with ourselves we will also admit that too many fathers are missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.”
I would respectfully like to add the following: “Black men are not just absent from their children’s lives; too many black men and women are absent from each other’s lives.”
May we all have the courage to make the change.

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