Dear Editor,
I have noticed that there is an alarming tendency of invoking old unproven racist stereotypes in the debate on marginalisation in Guyana. While it is good that marginalisation is being debated and openly discussed and not swept under the chador, as befits a society that claims to be democratic and free, it is socially damaging for the antagonists to fling the time-worn racist stereotypes at one another.
For example, in a Guyana Chronicle letter of Saturday April 26, 2008, one T King clearly implied that African-Guyanese are rapists and are unfit to rule Guyana, “You now know why the cries of African Guyanese will continue. Save your time and breath. Most Guyanese are too clever and too smart to figure this out and not let them rape Guyana ever again…They are fighting to rule Guyana and Guyanese once again the way they did from 1964 to 1992.”
Then in a Stabroek News letter of the same date, Mr Eric Phillips’ tenor seems to be that Indian Guyanese are wholly and solely responsible for the plight of African Guyanese, viz., “These criminals live outside Buxton and Agricola. They have nice homes and their children and families live off blood money.”
I ask these and other writers, as hard as it might be, to discuss marginalisation without invoking the racist stereotypes. It is not necessary to fling dirt on the other person to make yourself clean. There is no guilty ‘race’; there is no innocent ‘race’ either.
For this year so far, 28 African Guyanese and 28 Indian Guyanese have been murdered. The grim reaper knows how to bring about ethnic balance.
Yours faithfully,
M Xiu Quan-Balgobind-
Hackett
