The battle against racism should be lead by the government

Oct 14, 2020 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – Racism has always been a timeless scourge to human cohesion, cooperation, and development. Many man-made disasters have been caused due to racist tendencies found in humans. These include, but is not limited to: The Holocaust, which targeted 2/3rd of Europe’s Jews between 1933-1945, the Rwandan Genocide, in which 70% of Rwanda’s Tutsi population was exterminated in 1994, and the Armenian genocide, where 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were killed and expelled from Turkey (then part of the Ottoman Empire) from 1914-1917. In each of the genocides mentioned above, one ethnic group believed themselves to be superior to the ethnically cleansed group, and thus yielded to their racist tendencies and massacred the discriminated. All in all, racism is dangerous and can cost others their lives if left unchecked.
Guyana, while we might not have experienced ethnic genocide, racism still affects our growth and development as a nation. Despite our abundance of resources, ethnic supremacy has resulted in development being stymied and our nation still being considered as poor by economic indices. Racism negatively impacts our country, therefore all Guyanese must join together to stand up to this evil.
Regular citizens can only do so much, however. The battle against racism should be lead by the government, who are elected to govern for all Guyanese, no matter what ethnic group they identify as.
To promote social cohesion, the government must tackle the racist trolls which masquerade themselves on social media. These sickening humans see everything through their limited ethnic lens, and as such, spout out ugly, dangerous words. I believe any holistic response to racism should nullify these racists who abuse their freedom of speech. One modern way to address these trolls is to utilize Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). Researchers in San Francisco has developed a new online tool earlier this year to tackle racism against Asian Americans, which has exploded in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The tool is creatively named “Respond2Racism” and not only tracks these incidents of racism but also to educate and empower others to speak up. I am sure if the Government of Guyana wants to utilize a similar tool to monitor the racist trolls which are present on Guyanese social media, software developers would be willing to assist.
This would not be the only response to racism, but it may go a long way in assisting the authorities to confront racists who decide to hide behind a screen.
Only until we have conquered the ethnic divisions in Guyanese society, will our country begin to experience true peace and cohesion. Live long and prosper.
Yours truly,
Jordon Nelson

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