Dear Editor,
The ‘comments’ feature that allows readers on-line to offer opinions on the published material is a good addition. I learnt from it that my own comment on the IAC-Harris cartoon issue was not clear to all. Please permit me to make the following clarifications.
1) I do not consider it true that the cartoon (Sunday Stabroek, June 15) was intended to offend or to create racial strife. I do not think that the cartoonist or publisher demonstrated prejudice.
2) I do however feel that reaction to it reminds us that care has to be taken with the way we picture and present each other. Someone, somewhere, is sure to take offence.
3) The IAC (and PPP) should expect that persons such as Vidyanand Persaud or I myself will find that the fuss raised is not to be taken too far or too seriously. Their reactions to the cartoon merely lend another funny dimension to the matter. This is not to dismiss out of hand their contentions. But to remind them that not all Indians are embarrassed by the way the lady in the cartoon was clothed and bejewelled. Nor will all Indo-Guyanese feel that the cartoon is a distortion of Indian attitudes to the idea of another Afro-Guyanese president.
That the IAC wishes to do away with the notion that there is racism in the Indian population, may merely mean that the IAC wishes all Indian old ladies to accept and welcome the possibility of a Black President. This is good. (But is it politic?) The IAC, in pursuit of this commendable end ought to address the manifestations of racism in the group it shepherds, in addition to defending that group from calumny and unjustified suspicion.
I read the letter by Felicia Persaud of the IAC with interest. The point she makes about the loin-cloth is taken, despite its historical inaccuracy. Blacks all over the world are sensitive to the imagery in which they are or were held captive. A book on the representation of Africans in France, and a travelling exposition that was associated with it, did a good job of public education about perception, portrayal and prejudice. But the fact that Indo-Guyanese are not usually or invariably depicted in dhoti or sari means we do not have a major problem of this type here. Nor are Indians generally portrayed in negative or demeaning terms.
Indians have never had their social or economic progress restrained by an image problem. Contemporaneous with the lady in the rumal, were Indian mayors, doctors, district commissioners, businessmen, etc. In Guyana each race was a collection of communities and individuals at various measurable distances from their roots. The lady in the cartoon was therefore a representation not solely of a race, but of a class and a certain degree of immersion in a specific cultural milieu. No one seriously thinks that Paul Harris conceives of all Indians in this way. ‘Bush’men, Bux’n Man, Chinee and the others may still live a subterranean life in the occasional joke. There have been jokes of the type ‘a coolie man come to town from Berbice…’ But variants involving other racial groups and rustics were also current.
While the PPP/IAC is taking the matter too far and too seriously, it is time that we start making sure that our jokes don’t cross the line, don’t spring from real racial hatred and prejudice and don’t offend. Bearing always in mind that this is a place where ‘taking offence’ is often part of a politician’s repertoire of attitudes, a political posture intended to reassure the flock that their interests are the subject of a certain vigilance. These matters may be discussed, but never used to raise the level of racial tension by accusing others of racism. Which is what seems to be happening in this case.
Yours faithfully,
Abu Bakr
