Is Lincoln Lewis the Black version of White fascism?

Apr 09, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I read Lincoln Lewis column in last Sunday’s Kaieteur News and the first thing that flashed through my mind was if I was the editor for that day, would I have carried that piece. I probably would not.

As I kept reading this commentary all I could have thought of was how easy it is to fall prey to the virus of misplaced nationalism. Lewis’s presentation is directly out of the songbook of white fascism that is sweeping Europe and the US. When you read Lewis, you wonder if he was in fact plagiarizing the words of the Trump, the Brexit advocates in the UK and those who presently rule Italy, Hungary and other countries that are implementing fascist xenophobia.

Lincoln Lewis has been a friend for more than forty years. I didn’t expect that state of mind from him. I would never have thought that Lincoln could use the kind of canvas he painted to describe foreigners coming to Guyana to live and work.

To quote extensively from his viewpoint would take up too much space. The entire article is about foreigners invading Guyana and would take away our country from us and we must not allow that.

Here is some pretty obnoxious ranting from Lincoln. This quote here is identical to the mind- set of the fascist leaders in Italy, Hungary and Donald Trump; “We are a small nation in population size and the only English-speaking country in South America. Unplanned immigration brings with it consequences such as stress on the education and health services, housing overrun, the creation of slums, and our resources exploited by others willing to undersell their labour.

“We also face a crisis of submerging our culture further. This threat comes from others who do not speak our language and share a common culture… we also face a crisis of submerging our culture… we are facing a pending catastrophe which we must seek to avoid at all cost.”

I definitely selected this particular quote because of how identical it is to white fascist speakers in the US and Europe. Pay attention to words like: “They do not speak our language and share a common culture.” Those words have become deadly and dangerous because White fascists egged on by Trump have adopted those words as their Bible. Hispanics are constantly harassed in popular American cities and told to speak English.

Pay attention to another cluster of words by Lincoln Lewis which make you want to believe he has been copying from Trump and the Brexiters. Lewis said that if we allow these people to come in as they are presently doing Guyana will have a catastrophe. This is what Brexiters told the UK after Rumanians and Bulgarians joined the EU and went to the UK. This is what Trump has been telling his supporters every day.

But here is the section of Lewis’s column that makes me feel that he read Trump and plagiarized the American president; “We are already bearing witness to criminal elements crossing our porous border and terrorising our citizens in unprotected border settlements.” Having you been reading what Trump says all the time about Hispanic refugees? Those are the words Trump uses.

Does one need to educate Lewis by telling him there are more Guyanese living in the combined territories of the CARICOM countries, the US, UK and Canada than the current population of Guyana? Does Lewis know there are substantial numbers of illegal Guyanese in Antigua, Barbados, Trinidad, Suriname, US and Canada?

Does Lewis know that perhaps every Guyanese now residing in this country has a parent or sibling or cousin or aunt or uncle or niece or nephew living in another country?

I will offer the final quote from Lincoln which present day fascist leaders around the world are wont to use when they reject foreigners coming in. Lincoln wrote that there people are pouring into “our” country (Lewis doesn’t speak for me on this issue, I want him to know that) at a time when “we are on the cusp of economic greatness.”

This is pretty sick stuff coming from a citizen who lived in the days when foreign nations have been nice to us and have use their “economic greatness” to provide a place in the sun for untold numbers who fled Guyana.

I don’t know if you share the same sentiments as Lewis but I welcome those who come to Guyana in search of a better live. I will always thank Canada for putting its “economic greatness” at my disposal.

A poor fellow like me with no future in front of him got a Masters and a doctoral scholarship from that country. I never looked back.

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Is Lincoln Lewis the Black version of White fascism?

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