English horror: Thank God, it wasn’t non- white people

Aug 03, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

In February last year, on the 20th, I did a column captioned; “Australian horror: Thank God it wasn’t a Black family.” For those who didn’t read it, here is a lengthy extract; “An extended Italian-Australian family of twenty-six on the liner terrorized the rest of the passengers for three consecutive days. This extended family of men, women and younger family members did not physically harass a few passengers. They went around the ship just picking at people at random and hitting them.
On day three, what you see in the movies and the novels was nothing compared to what happened. Passengers were running for safety in all corners of the ship. Innocent passengers were being beaten up in front of children. People locked themselves in their cabins.
Security and staff had enough and began to intervene but they too were attacked with the women folks of the extended family jumping into the fracas The ship made an emergency landing at a port where Australian police intervened and escorted the family off into a small, waiting boat. They were not handcuffed.
One of the philistines could be seen showing his middle finger to the cruise passengers. Do you know what would have happened if that was a Black family or a non-white group? They would have been in foot chains and handcuffs and manhandled off the ship. Do you know what the Australian and white press would have carried if it was a Black family or non-white group.”
What you read above occurred on a Carnival cruise liner, one of the top names in the cruise liner business. Last week, the English version of the Australian mayhem took place. The ship, Britannica, saw a huge outbreak of terror while sailing back to the UK after a visit to Norway.
On the 16th level, a massive brawl (brawl was the word the media used) occurred in which furniture and wares were used as weapons.
It was the Australian terror show all over. Guests locked themselves in their rooms, while other hid under tables. Objects were flying across the floor and people were running to save themselves. Can you imagine people hurling furniture at each other in a fight? There is bound to be serious injuries. Can you imagine people pelting each other with wares? There could have been horrific eye injuries in such a situation.
None of the perpetrators on the Britannica were non-white people. I grew up in a Third World (TW) country where I saw, like billions of other TW people, how stereotypes were born about the non-white races. If a white American or European attend a sporting event and violence broke out, we were described as hooligans.
These stereotypes still exist among the Caucasian race. White people have a condescending attitude toward the non-white peoples of the world. We are seen as less mannerly, less urbane, violence prone, lacking social grace. These are the stereotypical portraits that colonialism perpetrated on the colonized.
And the colonizer internalize these negative values and accept them as revealing truths (see Edward Said’s fascinating book on the role of colonialism in the Orient titled, “Orientalism” – it is a good read)
What happened on those two cruise ships would have been reported for weeks and weeks if Nigerians or Guyanese or Pakistanis had behaved like that. Obviously someone may think of making a movie out of the Australian horror. Think of a cruise ship where for three days, dozens of drunken families have terrorized the entire crew and guests. You only see that in the movies.
It is interesting to note that one week after the terror on the Britannica, it was revealed on tape that Ronald Reagan while governor of California used a terrible word to describe African people. And he was describing them to the President of the US, Richard Nixon, who was on the other end of the phone line. I refuse to identify the word. It is better left unwritten.
This man went on to become president of the most powerful country in the world, and ruled it from 1980 to 1988. Obviously while he was president, he had little use for the African continent.
The stereotypes invented by colonial hegemony will not go away. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that if white tourists in Kenya or Jamaica or Honduras see a brawl in a cinema, they would be terrified at the way “these locals behave.”
No vivid portrait of the uncivilized descent on the two cruise ships would have any effect on them.

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English horror: Thank God, it wasn’t non- white people

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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English horror: Thank God, it wasn’t non- white people

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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