Racists mask their racism by calling others racist

Dec 24, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – UG Deputy Vice Chancellor, Dr. Mellissa Ifill, has joined Lincoln Lewis in publishing a letter with a title that includes the words, “Freddie Kissoon is obsessed with African Guyanese.” Both Lewis and Dr. Ifill have not produced even a modicum of evidence about this obsession and there is no attempt to explain the determinants of this obsession.
Of course both persons think that Guyanese are fools. If Pakistanis are supporting rigged elections in Guyana, then one’s critical pen will be pointed to Pakistanis and not Barbadians. Lewis’ and Dr. Ifill’s rage against me is because I have used my pen against certain African Guyanese who wanted to destroy this country through their support of rigged election paving the way for permanent rule of one type of people in which government will no longer change hands as when the PPP lost in 2010 and 2015.
Why do Lewis and Dr. Ifill think I am obsessed with Black Guyanese is because I have exposed both persons for their defence of election rigging. I did a column on Lewis yesterday, so I will devote the rest of the space to Dr. Ifill. In her letter yesterday, all kinds of things were thrown at me. After being a social activist for over 50 years, I am immune to the abuse people like Dr. Ifill assign to me. They never deterred me and will never. It is foolish if they think personalized attacks will scare me. Maybe I could be deterred but not from people like Dr. Mellissa Ifill.
First, I don’t know why Dr. Ifill thinks I would believe her when she wrote, “I will forever fight against racism, I will always be an ally and a supporter of any group that seeks and fights for equality and justice in their particular spaces.” My experience in living in Guyana is that the most non-racist words come out of the mouth of people who are racist. Of course that is commonsensical, since they have to put on their mask. I don’t know whether to say Dr. Ifill is comical or stupid or hypocritical when she boasts about her willingness to be a supporter of any group that fights for justice and equality.
Dr. Ifill was fighting against hundreds of thousands of Guyanese who wanted their votes counted so Guyana can have justice. In her insults hurled at me she forgot to mention that she was fighting against the international observers who wanted justice for the Guyanese people. Dr. Ifill failed to mention that she accused the international observers in her Facebook postings of buying the PPP’s propaganda. Those observers included two former Caribbean Prime Ministers, who in the context of Dr. Ifill’s hypocrisy I should mention are African-West Indian.
Dr. Ifill failed to mention that she stood against hundreds of thousands of Guyanese who literally begged GECOM chairman to do the right thing and stop Mingo and Lowenfield from rigging the election. Dr. Ifill’s early support for Singh in April was reported in the Chronicle with her picture.
In her interview with the Chronicle, Dr. Ifill said that she is not aware Ms. Singh has shown any partiality and she, Dr. Ifill, was proud of what Singh was doing. If Singh had acted decisively, Guyana would not have achieved a world record in modern history of taking five months to declare the results of an election in which only 440,000 votes were to be counted.
If equality and justice appeared in front of Dr. Ifill like a huge dinosaur she would not recognize it. It was this same Dr. Ifill who consistently posted loving words for Roxanne Myers on her Facebook after she was charged for criminal conduct as Deputy Chief Elections Officer. When for five months, Myers’s conduct was graphic for the world to see, Dr. Ifill was looking elsewhere.
Dr. Ifill ended her diatribe on me by saying that she wishes me luck in my angling for relevance, friends and earnings. In my column on her last Tuesday, I lamented how sad it is when educated people display colossal ignorance. If I wanted friends, I would have stopped writing a long time ago so people like Dr. Ifill would not write nasty things about me.
In relation to relevance, it is people like Dr. Ifill who make me relevant. I will remain relevant when people like Dr. Ifill support rigged elections, defend people like Roxanne Myers and insult former CARICOM Prime Ministers. Finally, Dr. Ifill thinks I am angling for earnings. If I was then I would have shut my mouth at UG so Dr. Ifill would not have had to picket for me after I was dismissed. Finally, Dr. Ifill says she is proud to be Black. I am colour blind that is why I support free and fair elections in my country.

(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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