Ridiculing ethnic names is offensive

Jun 08, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

In neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago, there is a brouhaha over ethnic names calling. It is the most talked about personality conflict not only in T&T but in its diaspora as well and in other Caribbean territories including among Guyanese. The ruling PNM Minister Camille Robinson-Regis poked fun at the middle name of Kamla Susheila Persad Bissessar, the former PM and now Opposition Leader. Poking fun at Indian names is offensive towards all Indians. It embodies racism. In sociology, it is called racial micro-aggression, the hurling of negative slights toward people of another group. All must decry such acts of racist behaviour.

Indians have lived with racism in the Caribbean and North America over name and faith. Blacks experienced racism over their race. During slavery, their names and faiths were changed. The White slave owners were wrong to change the names of Africans. Some fittingly have gone back to their original names and faiths that their ancestors brought with them from Africa hundreds of years ago.

There is no doubt that Minister Robinson was/is responsible for initiating this uncalled verbal spat. The public feels it was deliberate. What was a Minister, who is also leader of the House, thinking about when she ridiculed Kamla’s authentic traditional Hindu name? Was it deliberate in order to stir up the ethnic base at a time when supporters are losing confidence in government? Why hasn’t her party and the media condemned her and urged her to apologise? In another country, she would have been forced to resign from office.

I had spoken with many individuals, Indians, Africans, Mixed, Trinis, Tobagonians, Guyanese on the Kamla-Camille spat. Almost unanimously, they condemned Camille. Kamla, fittingly did not take it lying down. She ‘giveth’ as she ‘taketh’. She responded though inappropriately. “You have the name of your slave master”. Few blamed Kamla for her response to Camille for poking fun at Kamla’s name.

The public viewed Camille’s mis-pronouncement of Kamla’s middle or ‘call name’ as a derogation of not only Kamla’s but Indian peoples’ names in general. If she could not pronounce that simple name, then she should not have said it. And if she can’t pronounce such a simple Indian name, what does that say about her representation of Indians in her constituency or in government or in her Ministry?

Hindu names are assigned from the scriptures after parental or family consultation with a pandit although not all Hindus follow the practice. So Hindus would have a legal name and ‘a call or rassi name’.

One must not poke fun at peoples’ names. Indian names and their faiths (Hinduism and Islam) were historically laughed at ever since they arrived in Trinidad, Guyana, Jamaica, Grenada, and elsewhere. This caused many to change their names as well as their Hindu (and Islamic) faith. That was a bygone era and urban Indians, now familiar with their great ancestral civilization, have expressed regret at laughing at rural Indians over their Hindu or Islamic names, their cuisine, and their faiths. The dominant White Christianized culture shaped peoples’ behavior and directed them towards self-hate. It is unfortunate, that a Caribbean Minister of government mock at people on account of their name. It is regrettable that the Minister should still hold a colonial mindset sixty years after independence to ridicule Indians.

We must eschew such behaviour. It is no laughing matter to ridicule Indian names or those Blacks who have African names. I am proud of my ancestral name and so should everyone else. Blacks have accepted the names assigned to them by the slave owners of their ancestors. Indians and others must not condemn them for it. Indian, like African (from Africa) and Asian names are heritage linked. African names are beautiful — such as Kwame, Oheene, Kwayana, Mbutu, Ogunseye, Apata, Obama, etc. They should return to their ancestral heritage.

Almost everyone I spoke with – from both sides of the political divide in T&T — condemn the Minister. I am most disappointed by Camille’s behaviour; she is among the most liked within her party and seen as a potential successor to Dr. Rowley should he not seek a third term as PM. That she would debase her public standing and roll in the gutter shocks many including myself.

While Kamla is historically accurate to say that Camille has a slave name, it is inappropriate to say someone has retained the name of a slave master.

Yours truly,

Vishnu Bisram