Category Archives: Racism Watch

Elections, General T&T, PNM, Politics, Racism Watch

Black betrayal

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
March 09, 2020

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAFTER my article appeared in the Express last Sunday I received the following note: “Gd Mr Cudjoe. I have been reading your articles in the newspapers for a while and I want to invite to come and take a look at East Port of Spain where we live. My name is Aaron St John. I am 41 years old and was born in this city. It has not changed for all my life. It remains the same dirty, nasty undeveloped, unprotected and it’s only getting worse and more dangerous. Our lives are not improving and a deep sadness covers every home and everyone in and around the city.
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Education, General T&T, Racism Watch

Responding to the  Alleged Conspiracy Against  African Students

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By Stephen Kangal
March 04, 2020

Stephen KangalQuestions and Legitimate Concerns for the High-Powered Authors of the Statement on the Education of Children of African Origin
(First Published in the Express of 24 and 25 January and 5 and 6 February 2020 in the Newsday)

The foregoing list of questions and concerns is geared to be succinct in my reply. I cannot address all the mentioned points in full in the interest of brevity. These authors dealt with cosmetics and were unfair to the thinking community of T&T.
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General T&T, Labour, Protest, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Trade Unions

An incomplete revolution

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By Raffique Shah
March 02, 2020

Raffique ShahFifty years after the Black Power Revolution shook Trinidad and Tobago’s foundation, many people, mostly older folks, are trying to quantify what benefits, if any, were derived from those tumultuous events. In contrast, younger people have no idea that anything significant happened in 1970, nor are they interested in our history. Hell, they have little or no interest in history as a subject, far less in local history.
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Crime in T&T, Education, Racism Watch

Rethinking Our Approach to Education

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 24, 2020

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeEducation has an important role to play in getting us out of the degenerating situation in which we find ourselves. By education I do not mean the mere acquisition of mathematical and scientific knowledge and reading skills. I also mean the cultivation of an inner faculty that allows us, individually and collectively, to act purposefully within the social whole.

I was excited when Dr. Roland G. Baptiste, chairman of the Catholic Education Board of Management, in speaking about the performance of the Catholic schools under his remit, observed: “I left St. Mary’s College many years ago, and I believe at this time of my life that the most important aspect of my education [was/is]…the system of values the school left with me” (Express, February 18].
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Carnival, Culture, General T&T, Racism Watch

Puttin’ Yo Self in People Mouth

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
February 18, 2020

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeJudith Reyes is my neighbor. Our parents lived in the same spot for over eighty years. Neighbors thought our mothers were sisters. Judith’s brother Giles and I live like brothers. We have never quarreled with each other.

Every morning when I am in Trinidad Judith sends me a cup of porridge with prunes in it. She makes it clear that she is not doing that for me. Rather, she is doing this for my mother who she reminds me was my protector. She says: “Yo’ know how much candles yo’ mother light for you at Mt. St. Benedict?”
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General T&T, Hinduism, Racism Watch, Religion

Makeda Darius crowned NWAC National Calypso Queen

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Makeda Darius’ response, in song, to Prof Selwyn Cudjoe’s claim that the late Sat Maharaj reminded him of US civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr, earned her the National Women Action Committee’s (NWAC) National Calypso Queen crown. Her piece was entitled, No Martin.
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General T&T, International, Racism Watch

Why describe fatal events as Black

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By Kwame Nantambu
January 14, 2020

Dr. Kwame NantambuThe recent tragic crash of Ukraine International Airline Boeing 737-800 shortly after taking off from Tehran, Iran, thereby killing all 176 passengers on board, has once again brought to the fore the use, albeit misuse, of the term/label Black to describe/analyze such fatal/bad incidents/events.
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General T&T, Race and Identity, Racism Watch

Question of race and ethnicity in T&T

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By Dr Kwame Nantambu
December 16, 2019

Dr. Kwame NantambuOne of the most perplexing and intractable issues/problems in T&T is the utter, total misuse albeit mis-categorization of the term “racist” to describe interaction between citizens. And this overt faux pas reared its ugly head during the recent local government elections and the puerile parliamentary squabble between a PNM government minister and a UNC opposition senator— two putatively educated grown men.
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General T&T, Racism Watch

Caring for the Sensitivites of Others

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
December 06, 2019

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeAna, not her real name, is an enormously intelligent woman and a dear friend. On Monday she sent me a text: “I am one of those who disagree with you on the Sat issue. We must talk. I am organizing for work so now is not a good time but we must do so later.”

We talked later that day. She said: “Sat has said many hurtful things about black people. Black people do not have many idols to look up to but we have Martin Luther King. And then you come, as a prophet of God, to absolve Sat from all of the hurtful things he said about us.”
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General T&T, Hinduism, Passed on, Race and Identity, Racism Watch, Religion

Sat Maharaj and Martin Luther King

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By Dr Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 26, 2019

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeOne radio host called my comparison of Sat Maharaj with Martin Luther King “sacrilegious” while a caller to another radio station wondered what had happened to Professor Cudjoe since 2011. “I had admired Professor Cudjoe but now I don’t know what has gone wrong with him. Imagine his comparing Sat to Martin Luther King.” These were some of the condemnations that arose from my remarks about Satnarayan Maharaj.
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