Category Archives: Racism Watch

State of the African nation

By Rubadiri Victor
November 03, 2011 – trinidadexpress.com

EmancipationSo many of us cannot deal with history. We are frightened to stare down the naked horror that went into the creation of this modern world. It is simple. 500 years ago Western military conquest began a process that decimated hundreds of millions of people and created unprecedented wealth for itself. This wealth was predicated on a global apartheid caste system of white over brown over black. This passed through periods of Native American and South Pacific genocide, African slavery and holocausts, and Asian occupation and indentureship. This caste apartheid was practised in legislature, education, religion, and in distribution of resources like housing and employment. The only reason it is not as brutal as before is because people fought to reform it.
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Joan Yuille-Williams on Scholarship Fund

Following is Joan Yuille-Williams’ full statement:

Joan Yuille-WilliamsAs the former minister of community development, culture and gender affairs with the responsibility for the Financial Assistance Fund which is now the subject of salacious, misguided and uninformed comment, I wish to state the following fundamental facts for the general public’s information, even as I pursue my option for robust legal action to assert the truth unequivocally:
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Moving Backward Into Slavery

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 19, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAddressing the 15th Divali Celebration organized by the United National Congress Siparia Women’s Association last Friday, the Hon. Prime Minister offered the following remarks to her followers: “I thank you for your support, for your prayers and the adjustments you have made to your lifestyles during this period of the State of Emergency [SOE].”
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PNM SCANDALS

Budget presentation in Parliament at the Waterfront Complex, Port of Spain - October 10, 2011
Budget presentation in Parliament at the Waterfront Complex, Port of Spain - October 10, 2011

By Clint Chan Tack
October 18 2011 – newsday.co.tt

PRIME MINISTER Kamla Persad-Bissessar yesterday dropped several bombshells in the House of Representatives, exposing what she described as major corruption scandals which took place under the former People’s National Movement (PNM) government.
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Question of Apology for Slavery and Reparations: Updated

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
October 09, 2011

Dr. Kwame NantambuApology for Slavery

In April 2006, the Church of England voted “to apologize to the descendants of victims of the slave trade” and in March 2007, considered paying reparations.
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Sandy Must Stay!

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
October 04, 2011

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI hate to be on Keith Rowley’s case but Rowley (and by extension the PNM) is really missing the pulse of the people and, in the process, failing to take the lead politically in the society. A serious party must be the elevated consciousness of a people. The leadership of the PNM has not shown such leadership in this crisis. We are following rather than leading the masses and that is not good for the party. It speaks volumes about Rowley’s leadership abilities.
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“A hostile and recalcitrant minority”

Eric Williamsrecalcitrant

1. resisting authority or control; not obedient or compliant; refractory.

2. hard to deal with, manage, or operate.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/recalcitrant

Did Dr. Eric Williams brand all Indians “a hostile and recalcitrant minority”? And, why did he make such a statement?

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Excerpt from Dr. Winston Mahabir

“When the PNM lost the Federal Election in 1958, Eric Williams looked no futher than the Indians for a scapegoat. In a most unfortunate speech he branded them as ‘a hostile and recalcitrant minority.’
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The Culture Of Williams

Q & A with Gordon Rohlehr
By Kim Johnson
Sunday and Monday Express
June 28 & 29, 1998

Eric WilliamsGordon Rohlehr, a professor of literature at UWI, is well known for his encyclopaedic writings on calypso, as well as his many writings on other themes including West Indian literature and culture in general. Recently he has published a serialized essay in the T&T Review on Eric Williams and cultural policy. Here the Sunday Express’ Kim Johnson invites Prof. Rohlehr to expand on some of the issues he raised in the Review.
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Reply to Raymond Ramcharitar’s Africentrism

EmancipationTHE EDITOR: Raymond Ramcharitar’s 21/9/11 piece on Africentrism [How to do the Afrocentric Hustle] was a shameless display of intellectual laziness and generalising with enough vitriol to hint at something I won’t even dignify here with a mention. Which is unfortunate because it took away from a message that contained some validity. There’re quite a few scholars, politicians, artistes and activists who exploit enslavement, colonialism and Euro-centred racism to excuse self-defeatist attitudes and who manipulate racial insecurities, narrow tribalism and ideas of entitlement to retard real self-development among Afro-Trinis.
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Needed: A second Emancipation

By Michael Harris
September 11, 2011 – trinidadexpress.com

PNMMy column last Monday [PNM’s children] seems to have ignited something of a furore among readers. On talk shows, in the blogs, and in letters to the editor, there was a surprisingly huge outpouring of feedback as everyone appeared to have something to say about my article.
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