The way I see it. Racial discrimination was never ordained by God and God does not approve of such behaviour emanating from his carefully created beings.
I base my surmisings on what is written in Genesis 1:27:
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
I am not too bright, but from my simple reckonings then, all of us originated from the original beings, Adam and Eve and that makes all of us FAMILY of sorts.
It also means therefore that there should be no real issues as regards ethnicity and race, because despite the fact that we live in various countries across the world; come in various colours, sizes and shapes; have a multiplicity of beliefs, mores and norms, the reality is: WE ALL ARE ONE-CREATED BY THE SAME GOD-IN HIS OWN IMAGE!
Well I newa!
Unfortunately, history will reveal that some of the fairer skin family members decided to enslave other family members of darker complexion and forced them to work assiduously for little or nothing.
History will further reveal the following:
“It is estimated that 361,000 Africans were transported to the North American colonies and another 2.2 million to the Caribbean. Slavery was abolished on 1 August 1834 .”
Now that should be really good news about the termination of such dastardly treatment of our fellow human beings—but wait!
There is something called MENTAL SLAVERY and unfortunately too many of us are still mentally enslaved.
As much as we crave for equality in acquiring executive positions in the top of the line institutions, the ‘crab in a barrel mentality,’ inevitably takes over.
It’s like a two edged sword.
On one hand, the BLACK newly appointed executive, uses the opportunity to ‘show off’ on the now ‘lesser mortals’ of his same race and on the other hand, the majority subordinate number, try every trick in the book, to make sure that their newly elevated boss, looks bad in the eyes of the bigger bosses, who invariably would be white.
I have had the opportunity to travel a bit and there are places where some of our Black brothers and sisters, harbour an inferiority complex.
Have you ever been on a cruise ship and when it docks at a particular island, you may go browsing in some of the stores and people of your own colour would ask: ‘Are you on the cruise ship?’
You say ‘yes’ and the next statement is particularly painful: ‘Oh, you are one of the crew members!’
That is saying effectively, that in their minds, only white people can afford to take a cruise. The black ones must always be the servants—the crew.
Well I newa!
History will also show us that many of our Nevisian grandparents and parents, left Nevis in those early years, to seek a better life.
Many travelled by boat to England and now many of them or their siblings, enjoy sizeable pensions because of the work they did in the UK.
Others went to Santo Domingo-hence the connection with so many Spanish speaking folks on the island.
Many went to the big United States and we still have thousands of Nevisians and their off spring, living there-some legally—others existing as virtual ‘refugees’.
Sadly, in a recent incident here on Nevis, a young Guyanese girl was badly discriminated against, by one of our adult Nevisians.
That little girl is aspiring to make it through the educational processes, in an effort to make something of her life.
Her father and mother are born Guyanese yes, but they have come to Nevis to seek a better life and have made their significant contribution in their professional fields of choice and have contributed significantly to the overall psyche of the island.
That little girl in her innocence, did not deserve such derogatory comments, relating to her country of origin.
When we speak like that, we are already forgetting that we have Nevisians in almost every country in the world.
As a matter of fact, one of my favourite hobbies when I travel to a new country or island, is to look for the Nevisians who live there.
One good thing I can say for most of our Nevisians who travel abroad, is that wherever in the world you place them, they normally come up Trumps (no pun intended).
So too, we should give those who live among us LEGALLY, the opportunity to strive and to make their contribution. Once they are not engaging in anything illegal and out of order, we ought to let them live like FAMILY.
For my part, whether you are BLACK, WHITE or in between, you are my brother or my sister.
Let it be known also that some white people, treat us a lot better than some of our black brothers and sisters.
So we are all PEOPLE. Some of us have good mind and some of us have bad mind-no matter the colour or country of origin.
Let us take pride in our existence. Let us be aware that we are ROYALTY-made in God’s own image and ordained as princes and princesses. He being the KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS.
Let us start from today to treat each other with the respect that God requires of us.
That’s the way I see it. How do you see it?