Bahamian Social System: A Collage

Muddo. Some of you may have also receieved this image via email but I could not resist adding it to my blog. I was in stitches! I would love to meet the person that put this together. Wow.

Guerrero

Re-Shuffling the Race Cards 4 (On Whiteness and Being Bahamian)

On Whiteness and Being Bahamian

(By Helen Klonaris, helenklonaris@hotmail.com)

Dear Editor,
Please allow me space in your newspaper for the following long overdue letter:

As a Greek Bahamian who grew up in Nassau, my life has been deeply and profoundly influenced by African Bahamian culture. For me, I have come to understand, this has been a privilege which afforded me lessons, insights and ways of seeing and being I could not have learned anywhere else; certainly not in America, where the majority anglo populations again and again turn away from the possibility of creating something new out of real engagement with communities of colour; the possibilities for transformation that the perspectives of non-white cultures might offer.

It is with a recurring sadness then, that I have read the letters of Dr. Russell, of Professor Moss, of Mr. George Capron, all of whom have spoken from their hearts and minds regarding the reality of racism in our country. I say ‘recurring sadness’ because this is an old discussion, one ‘we’ (white and black and everyone in between) haven’t really had. A conversation that white Bahamians by and large, either want to dismiss, with common phrases such as “I don’t think about race,” “race doesn’t come into it,” or “we’re over that”, or, become defensive and speak of “reverse racism”, that “the tables have turned” and white people are now the victims of Black oppression. (This particular accusation is founded upon the lack of knowledge of what ‘racism’ really means… but more about that in paragraphs to come.)

I recently reread these letters, remembering that if I want and need this conversation to happen, I have to enter it, and speak. Eventually, I found my way back to the interview Christian Campbell recorded with Mr. Brent Symonette in The Weekender, May 27-29, 2005. I needed to see first hand the statements being responded to by Dr. Russell and others. I needed to see for myself what kind of leadership I could expect from Mr. Symonette.

What I read in that interview was shocking at first, but, I had to admit, disturbingly representative of a vast number of white Bahamians, especially of middle and upper classes. It could take pages to unpack all that was said there, (not said there) and perhaps one day it will, but for now, let me say that it concerns me terribly that in 2005 (2006) the consciousness of white leadership around issues of race and culture remains grossly stunted, without vision, without the twin forces of emotional integrity and intellectual honesty. And perhaps it is possible to run a small business without any of these qualities, (in a capitalist’s nirvana – where human spirit and human life are not part of the equation,) but a country is not a small business, it is communities of human beings who are struggling to make it; communities of human beings struggling to know how to live together in a small place; communities of human beings, the majority of whom are struggling to keep soul intact when body is hard-pressed to make a living, hard-pressed to love herself, himself, in a global environment that does not value the lives of Caribbean people, of Black people, of Indigenous people anywhere.

It concerns me that a leader who is white and Bahamian could express wonder at why race is still an issue in today’s Bahamas. That somehow “to come to grips with our history” means to accept it and move on. I think what white Bahamians really mean when we say this is “Black people should accept what happened and move on…” What we are really saying is “I don’t want to have to think about how I as a white person have developed an identity in an age of racism; I don’t want to have to think about how four hundred years of European enslavement of Africans affected who I am today.”

We don’t want to have to think about white privilege and how it most certainly does affect how we live in the world, perceive ourselves, how others perceive us, our presumed power. We don’t want to have to think about the legacy of whiteness, regardless of whether our foreparents were slave holders or not; how whiteness developed as a system of standards and values and ways of desiring in the world – a system that thrives still and assimilates into it anyone who is standing too close to a television set, (or just standing…) with ears to hear and hope for sale.
But Mr. Symonette doesn’t want to reflect on what the differences might be between Blacks and whites in this country. “You’re a Bahamian, I’m a Bahamian, end of subject,” he tells Campbell. Further on he does not acknowledge that segregation may exist along racial lines, asking Campbell: “Are we making this an issue when it isn’t?”

It is too easy to use the word ‘Bahamian’ to excuse ourselves from having to talk about the differences between us, too easy to accuse others of seeing something ‘not really there’, so that anyone who brings up race is deemed fanatical, somehow, suspicious, as though they are seeing ghosts. (And, perhaps they are.)

It concerns me that a leader who is white and Bahamian can continue to perpetuate the confused notion that (alleged) discrimination of a white person by a Black person is “racism in reverse”. What is not discussed in these overly simplified debates is that racism is about power within a well defined (local and global) system of relationships; it is not simply a dislike of a person because of their skin colour. This system of relationships forms a structure, one that systematically imposes the values, standards, ways of being, ways of seeing, ways of doing and speaking of one race upon another race of people. Because structure, like the walls and supporting beams of a house, is so omni-present, it is difficult sometimes to notice it at all, (especially when we don’t have to notice it, when we are comfortable inside that house, when we profit from the structures being exactly where they are).

We may think that what is racism are the accessories in the house – a history book that tells a one-sided story, lying on a coffee table. So we get rid of everything antiquated, (perhaps), throw out the books, (perhaps), take down pictures of the Queen, perhaps. But the overall structure is still there, and in this age, it is a white structure, (think about educational curricula, think about the legal system, Judeo Christian church hierarchies, the English language itself) and it carries on what it set out to do: perpetuate white values, standards, ways of being and seeing, ways of doing and speaking – to the exclusion (suppression, condemnation, ghettoization) of any other structures, i.e. ways of thinking, seeing, being that belong to other cultures, in our case, African.
Within the context of the Bahamas, which is not separate from the larger economic and political realities of the world, a Black person might be ‘prejudiced’, may call into question a white person’s trustworthiness, but I would hesitate greatly before using the term ‘racist’, since I think white people globally and locally still maintain economic power, and since the social structures most of us live within here are largely defined by white (European and American) cultural value systems.

Dr. Russell made a vital point in his explanation of “ontological whiteness” (November 29, 2005) as a perspective that not only imposes its values upon others, but also “insists upon the masses having a sustained collective amnesia about history, so that its grotesque face and diabolical actions can be washed away in a river of forgetfulness”.
I agree that the key to colonialism’s success, to whiteness perpetuating itself, is a cultivated amnesia: rob people of their memories and they have no where to go, nothing to go back to. (All the better to seduce you, control you, create you in the image of the colonizer, my dear.) What is not always recognized is the way in which those perpetuating oppression must also teach themselves to forget, to not know, so that they can continue to justify who they are and the structures that they are committed to, in spite of the suffering these same structures have and continue to cause in the lives of others.

What I found most disturbing in this interview, which I think is also reflective of the wider white Bahamian community, is precisely this cultivated forgetting; an overwhelming sense of denial expressed by Mr. Symonette so absolutely, so completely in almost every sentence. He denies thinking about race as an issue; he denies thinking about the possibility of his African ancestry; he denies thinking about why his class or wealth should be a matter of discussion; he denies that the legacy of 400 years of white colonialism (and in particular his ancestral lineage) has had any influence on the way he sees the world today. But perhaps most striking to me, and perhaps most frightening, was his admission that African Bahamian history and culture have nothing to do with him, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. And here, I must again quote what Mr. Symonette himself purportedly said when asked by Campbell why it is that white Bahamians “find it difficult to celebrate African-rooted culture”?

Mr. Symonette responded; “My heritage is France, hence the name “Symonette.” France to England and possibly to Bermuda and then here. When Alfred Sears stood up and talked about Clifton, he painted this very emotional picture of the black slave captured in Africa (sic) and landing into freedom in The Bahamas. I didn’t come that route. (Italics mine). So my cultural history isn’t based in the navel string of Mother Africa, so how can you ask me to celebrate that heritage?”

After reading this sentence, I felt winded, the breath knocked from me. I had read a portion of it in Dr. Russell’s letter, but reading the entire conversation trounced me. “I didn’t come that route”, said Mr. Symonette. As if African slavery and the arrival of white colonialists were not connected; as if the two histories are not integrally, irreversibly intertwined and still to this day rub up against each other and hurt when rain is coming, when hurricanes start brewing, when it is just another ordinary day in a small place and we don’t know how to look each other in the eye and tell the truth.

I cannot identify with Mr. Symonette’s feeling. I am only the granddaughter of immigrants, still arriving in so many ways, and yet, my own experience has rooted me in an African and Greek cultural reality which I could not shake if I wanted to. I do feel that the history of my sisters and brothers of African descent in this place is now a part of my history, and that my Greek history must also be a part of theirs. I not only want to celebrate “that heritage”, I want to love the people connected to it, people I consider to be my people. I am no longer one, here in this new world. I am more than one.

Know also that I have grown up in this body, in this white skin, and am conscious of what racism feels like, looks like, the power it has to keep me from wanting to tell the truth. I am conscious of what white privilege feels like, how it can separate me from Black people, because it is supposed to; how if I don’t see it for what it is, I too could be duped into believing that whiteness and all that comes with it is the way; see everything and everybody not white through that white light that distorts faces, cultures, histories, makes them all seem less than ‘mine’.
The story Mr. Symonette is telling covers up a deeper one, one that is harder to hear and to tell. White people aren’t used to being that uncomfortable. Not used to having our identities shake along with the structures we were born into or bought into, one way or another. And the truth is, in the Bahamas, we haven’t had to challenge ourselves much. Majority rule is one thing, having economic power is another. The ground under our feet didn’t shake, much. Most of the same old buildings are still standing. We’re still right here, aren’t we?

And yet, there is hope; there is hope in the nature of stories: stories want to be told. Stories refuse to be kept down or hidden. They find ways to rise up to the surface of things. And when they do, they can’t help but change everything. True true stories are rebels. They have the power to liberate people. From our own lies. Even when we are afraid. True true stories grab us up and pull us trembling to places we never thought we would go. True true stories are the voices at the back of our head, dangerous, persistent, inconvenient, shocking. It is the courageous man who listens to the true true stories, and upon hearing them, speaks.

Sincerely,
Helen Klonaris
New College of California,
San Francisco, CA
January 28, 2006

Re-Shuffling the Race Cards 3

16th January 2006
The Bahama Journal

Former MP Says Majority Rule Turned Tables On Discrimination

For white Bahamians, Majority Rule meant that many of them faced discrimination under the new black government following the historic 1967 vote, according to Michael Lightbourne, a former member of parliament who was the special guest on Love 97’s “Jones and Company” on Sunday.

"I guess those who were against the UBP (United Bahamian Party) said the UBP did the same thing," said Mr. Lightbourne, who worked for the UBP during its campaign in the 60s. "(White) people were discriminated against when it came to employment opportunities, for instance applications for jobs and this would have cut both ways."

He said when Majority Rule happened, he realized that the UBP would never see the government again unless black leaders came in and took it over. "I think there were a lot of persons who felt, for whatever reason, the UBP – and in many ways it’s because of what the PLP said about it – had a bad connotation. So people who you would want to come and take over just, for whatever reason, felt they didn’t want to join that organization because of the connotation it had."

Mr. Lightbourne said the PLP had the weapon of race at its disposal and used it.

Asked whether the party was still using this weapon, he responded, "They’re still using it, but I’m not sure they’re as successful as they used to be. I’m sure they’re not. A lot of Bahamians want to move on from that."

Mr. Lightbourne said the UBP was not directly responsible for discrimination at hotels and in other pubic areas because it was an era ushered in before its time.

"Certain things happen [that] you can’t change," he said. "It’s something that evolved and [they] found it there and things don’t change too quickly, unfortunately."

Mr. Lightbourne conceded that the discrimination that took place under the UBP "should be regretted by everyone."

"But what would I apologize for? I hope I never hurt anybody’s feelings or did something to make them feel inferior to me," he said.
The show’s host, Wendall Jones, asked Mr. Lightbourne whether he thought former members of the UBP who are still alive are apologetic for the way black Bahamians were discriminated against under their rule.
Mr. Lightbourne said, "I can’t speak for anyone, but myself. I’m sure every one of them is sorry that those things were in place, but by the same token, the PLP, should they apologize for discriminating against persons during their regime who they did not give licenses to? Citizenship [to]?"

Responding to a question, he said it was a mistake on the part of the UBP not to let any black Bahamian into the inner sanctum of the party.
Mr. Lightbourne’s appearance on "Jones and Company" came five days after the 39th anniversary of Majority Rule was observed.
Appearing on another Love 97 talk show on Tuesday, one of the architects of Majority Rule, Sir Arthur Foulkes said the advent of Majority Rule in The Bahamas will most likely not be properly commemorated or recognized as an event of importance and significance to persons of all political persuasions and ethnic groups until an inclusive, non-partisan approach to the historic development is promoted.

Re-Shuffling the Race Cards 2

“Who’s really playing the race card?”
(page 4, Tuesday, December 13, 2005, The Tribune, The Bahamas)

EDITOR, The Tribune

As a Bahamian who has lived abroad for the past two decades, I may be somewhat out of touch, but not by much. I use the internet to stay abreast of current events therefore I feel qualified to comment on a topical issue which can balloon into an emotional firestorm to the detriment of all. I speak of the race issue in The Bahamas.

I find it absolutely amazing that in 2005 when supporters of the PLP refer to skin colour, it is said that they are replaying the race card; that they are being divisive; they are digging up old bones from a bygone era. Yet, the minute Brent Symonette and Hubert Ingraham were coronated by the FNM and dubbed the salt and pepper team, Michael Jackson’s “Ebony and Ivory” played in the background: they passed this off as being inclusive.

Black Bahamians cannot allow themselves to be sucked into the clutches of utopia in order to fulfil someone’s political agenda. The fact is the Bahamas is still very much a race-driven, colour conscious society.

If you doubt me, look at the obituary pages of the newspaper: white people send their loved ones to Pinder and Kemp—exclusively. If you don’t believe me, check out the Public Service. Why are there virtually no white Police, Defence, Prison, Immigration, customs officers? Why are there virtually no white Bahamian teachers in the Public school system? Why are there no white Bahamian straw vendors, hotel workers or taxi drivers? How do you explain this? They can’t blame the “racist” PLP; the FNM was in power for ten years.

If you don’t believe me, explain this: black Bahamians spend millions of dollars with Kelly’s, John S. George, Asa Pritchard, et al. When was the last time you saw a white Bahamian shopping at Milo Butler, eating at the Reef or worshipping at Zion Baptist Church? They want economic inclusion but practice social apartheid.

Frankly, from my standpoint, the comments about Brent Symonette from the PLP cannot possibly be because he is a white Bahamian. Edison Key did rather well in the PLP, so did Marvin Pinder, Jonathan Simms and countless others. Indeed, it is the PLP that to this day owns the distinction of having appointed the country’s only white Bahamian to the high post of Governor General—Sir Henry Taylor. So all the talk about One Bahamas is just talk!

Talk to me about One Bahamas when white Bahamians participate in Junkanoo; when they attend the Bahamas Games; when they fly Bahamasair to Miami; when they patronise Lil Generals; when they go to Fish Fry and when they participate in The Love games – all of which have nothing to do with the PLP. Talk to me about One Bahamas when my son can date Brent Symonette’s daughter. That’ll be the day.

Black Bahamians can be duped if they wish. Trust me, white Bahamians, by and large, love you when you’re spending and when you are prepared to give them their country back. Other than that, they’re not checking. They have economic power. We are where we are today because we’ve held political power. Give them the whole hog if you wish. The United States is over 200 years old and a black Vice President is unthinkable. What’s our hurry?

It took generations to dismantle colonialism and generations to cast away tokenism. We still wrestle with an entrenched oligopoly. Therefore, for us to believe that we can fuse together One Bahamas in thirty years is a pipe dream. Indeed, only blacks want this—whites do not.

If white Bahamians make up less than 15 per cent of the population but in 2005 control in excess of 85 per cent of the wealth, then obviously many black Bahamians still feel that white is right and the lighter the better. That is why they run to City Lumber and JBR all week long and rush to Hanna’s and Cartwright’s on Sundays when the “real stores” are closed. That is why black Bahamians flock to Kentucky but whites stay clear of Bamboo Shack or Bertha’s. That is why blacks are dying for their children to go to St. Andrew’s but white Bahamians hardly send their children to SAC—which has the best passes in national exams.

The evidence is crystal clear. White Bahamians, though not all of them, couldn’t stand Hubert Ingraham as long as he was a PLP. The minute he became an FNM he was their saviour—come to save them from the political governance by black Bahamians. Never mind that Ingraham, Turnquest, Foulkes, et al are all black. Somehow the white Bahamians feel that with them in the vehicle of power the white Bahamian would be behind the wheel.

That, my dear friends, is the social psychology of racism in The Bahamas.

FELIX MOSS, PhD
Professor
University of California
Nassau
December 9, 2005

Re-Shuffling the Race Cards 1

Gapseed Massive,

Now back from a whirlwind trip in NYC. Finally getting around to re-posting the articles on 'race' that I posted before I set up the blog. I really also want to get some dialogue going about class in The Bahamas, which is an issue that is a bit more insidious as it is not headline-newsworthy yet structures social relations in this country in so many subtle and more glaring ways.

On the Forward,

cac

THE BAHAMA JOURNAL
29th November 2005

Letter To The Editor

Brent Symonette "Ontologically White"

Dear Editor:

Please allow me space in your daily for a comment.
Friedrick Nietzsche advances the idea, in his monumental work The Genealogy of Morals, that there are no 'truths' only 'perspectives'. With this dictum in mind I offer the following analysis.

There is much talk, still, about Mr. Brent Symonette being a white man. If the discussion continues to be about the color of his skin, we are wasting valuable time and energy debating the blatantly obvious. What may not be so apparent--and is far more important--is that Mr. Symonette is ontologically white. That is: whiteness is the grid out of which he thinks and makes decisions. It's okay to think white if the job for which you are vying is writing editorials for The Tribune, but if, potentially, you are seeking a national office in a country predominantly populated by black people then it is not permissible.

Ontological whiteness is elitist. It is insensitive to the plight of suffering, struggling masses of people, who, in this country, happens to be black. This is not the case everywhere in the world where ontological whiteness holds or is trying to gain power. In some cases the masses are brown, yellow--even white.

Moreover, ontological whiteness perceives itself to be superior, with some innate, God-given right to rule the masses. It is restless until it achieves this goal. Further, it believes its particular world view and cultural perspectives to be universal, ignoring all others or relegating them to a place of inferiority. But what is most disturbing about this insidious human aberration is that it insists upon the masses having a sustained collective amnesia about history, so that its grotesque face and diabolical actions can be washed away in a river of forgetfulness.
To be sure, there are white-skinned Bahamians who are not ontologically white, but Mr. Symonette is not one of them. And this evaluation of Mr. Symonette by many Bahamians is not pulled out of the ether; it is a matter of record.

For example, when he was briefly the Minister of Tourism and faced with the human dilemma of whether to close a government hotel that was losing money, or to keep it open allow struggling Bahamians to keep a job, Mr. Symonette' s decision was in favor of closing it down.
Of course, if a hotel closes Mr. Symonette would not miss any meals and his bills will still be paid. He doesn't concern himself with the masses who would be caught in this predicament. For him market forces take precedence over suffering people. This is the thinking of ontological whiteness.

Another audacious display of this thinking process occurred when he was chairman of the Airport Authority. He offered a contract for work at the airport to his company (to himself). Of course, to every ethical person--who is not blinded by the torch--this is a conflict of interest and abuse of power. At least it is to any person not infected by ontological whiteness.
But, alas, Mr. Symonette is unrepentant. In an interview years later conducted by Christian Campbell, in the Weekender of May 27-29, 2005, Mr. Symonette was asked about his decision to award himself a contract; he stated: "I'd do it again tomorrow because it was the right decision. It was the cheapest price. The mistake I made was not getting the board to approve it."

Astonishing! But he is thinking from his grid. He has not changed because he cannot change. It is who he is: by nature and nurture. This is his being. He thinks white. His ilk is defined by this kind of arrogance, and is used to not being accountable to any law outside themselves. He is incapable of thinking his way into the shoes of the masses. It is not in him. He has no map, no tools to find his way in. Every policy he would formulate and every decision he would make would disproportionately benefit a private precinct of power and, in the end, adversely affect the masses. He is not fit for national office because he is incapable of a national thought.

In a final example, during the same interview Mr. Campbell asks: 'Why is it that 'white' Bahamians find it difficult to celebrate African-rooted culture, which is also their culture?" Mr. Symonette responds: "My heritage is France, hence the name 'Symonette'. France to England and possibly to Bermuda and then here...I didn't come that route (meaning the African slave route). So my cultural history isn't based in the navel string of Mother Africa, so how can you ask me to celebrate that heritage." Unbelievable! And this man, potentially, wants a national office in a country where 98% of the population--himself included--has roots in Africa. (It would strengthen my argument at this point to include here his evasive and dismissive comments when asked about the presence of blackness in his immediate ancestry, but I find it to painful to write.)

This is why Mr. Symonette's very presence on the ticket conjures up three hundred years of ugly Bahamian history, where blacks (and some whites) were marginalized, demonized and dehumanized. It isn't the color of his skin, it's the color of his thinking. Some white people marched alongside blacks to gain the freedoms we all now enjoy. Mr. Symonette is not one of them. Although it is a historical fact that most people infected with this ontological disposition have been, and are, white, the sad fact is that many people with black skins are ontologically white. They think from the same elitist, insensitive, superior, self-deprecating grid.
As for Mr. Ingraham, understandably, I don't get the same visceral feelings regarding, his presence on the F.N .M.' s ticket. Yet, I have never liked his brash, insensitive, dictator style of leadership. In my opinion, it is inconsistent with the deepening of democracy. In addition, there are those of us in Grand Bahama who still remember his caustic remarks to working Bahamians with the closing of the Lucayan Beach Casino. Some of us still remember how long the Lucayan strip was closed; remember the construction company who came to rebuild it running off with Bahamians' paychecks. We remember Gulf Union Bank. We know who to charge with the debacle of the former Princess Hotel Property. And some of us can discern in Mr. Ingraham's recent actions the Pilate syndrome: the symbolic washing of hands, denying responsibility for or culpability in the sacrifice of innocence. The human slaughter of sons has long been rejected by God with Abraham on Mt. Mariah.

All of the above is a matter of record. None of it can be obfuscated from the acute eyes and keen memory of the Bahamian public by the jubilant gyrations and genuflecting of Mr. Ingraham's hypnotized supporters. Still, I have always been appreciative of Mr. Ingraham's willingness to serve, his willingness to put he and his family under fire. This is no small contribution, notwithstanding his delusions in the present circumstances. Thank you, sir.

And so, the show is over. It was interesting and exciting, with drama and intrigue, full of pump and pageantry, rising balloons and falling confetti, but with Mr. Ingraham and Mr. Symonette as the headliners, I don't think that the Bahamian people, the majority of whom are the working class, can afford the price of the ticket.

Sincerely,

Dr. Keith A. Russell