My music choice disqualifies me from being an unbiased human

Jan 30, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – I have always stayed away from ethnic organisations. My fear has been and always will be that once you settle into an organisation that is essentially ethnic in ontology, you are likely to make choices based on your racial consciousness and those decisions may be philosophically flawed.
This feeling of mine has no relation whatsoever with the belief that it is psychologically and sociologically perfect for different race groups to want to preserve what is precious and value in their evolution, thus forming ethnic organisations are as natural and acceptable as the grass that grows on the parapet.
As a student at the University of Toronto, I saw the colour (no pun intended) and beauty of dozens of ethnic organisations with their own buildings with their names emblazoned on their façade. I could imagine what it is like in a cosmopolitan city like London.
I still believe there is always a preference lurking in those groups that conflicts with the meaning of what a human should be like. I remember Ryhaan Shah wrote; “My Indian self is in my DNA. It is my history, my legacy, my traditions, my culture. It is my spiritual home.” Dr. Melissa Ifill, Deputy Vice Chancellor of UG, wrote: “I am unapologetically Black – always was and always will be! I march through this life and world as a Black woman.”
The persons who composed those statements have an alienable right to embrace how they feel. My uneasiness is natural and would be shared by countless souls. It is that there may be a bias on how those people see life as it unfolds. Would their ethnic DNA come in to play when crucial decisions are to be made?
This is a long digression on Clairmont Chung’s belief that my choice of music should disqualify me from being Guyana’s commissioner of human rights so bear with me for a few more paragraphs. Dr. Ifill took a certain position on the March 2020 elections which I think could not be sustained.
I don’t know if her statement above about her African consciousness led her to that feeling. It may not have. But could you convince non-Africans otherwise given the way she speaks of her Blackness? I took an opposing position to Dr. Ifill on the election. But in fairness to me, I have never proclaimed an enduring embrace of my ethnic genes and never belonged to an Indian organisation. I never cared to gravitate to those organisations at any time in my life.
Now for the caption of this column. I believe the long digression will become relevant as you read on. Clairmont Chung rose to prominence in the academic world with his book, “Walter Rodney: A Promise of Revolution.” From reading him, I get the sense that he is driven by the studies of white oppression of Black civilisation.
I don’t have a problem with that. That is the history of the people of the Third World. No book can better express that than the great philosophical work, “The Racial Contract” by Jamaican philosopher, Charles Mills (deceased). What I find problematic in the world view of people like Clairmont is how they elevate ethnicity and use it to reduce the human mind to a Pavlovian sponge.
Clairmont wrote that on first glance when he saw that I wanted to be commissioner of human rights, he was in support but when he looked at the names of three singers whose songs I like – Johnny Mathis, Patrizio Buenne and Andre Boccelli – he realised I would not be the right person for that job. He noted: As his favourites, they do reveal a cultural disconnect for a would be human rights commissioner in Guyana or anywhere. If I had liked Damien Marley, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Steel Pulse would I have been more qualified?
The fact is, I like the music of those three Black artists. I introduced my wife to the music of Johnson. I grew up in Wortmanville with ska, rock steady, reggae and soul. Why can’t I like Mathis, Buenne and Boccelli and be essentially who I am – a person driven by memories of his childhood poverty and want to see freedom, justice and happiness for the poorer folks of my country?
How can my love for a certain kind of music deter me from my judging people as equal? Clairmont is saying that in my human rights work, I will not be unbiased because the music I listen to will distort my philosophical understanding that we, humans are all equal. Space has run out, but this I will say to Clairmont – keep your ethnic consciousness because nothing is wrong with it but man oh man, try to read more philosophy.
(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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