(An Open Letter to Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Chair of the Caricom Community and Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, Caricom Secretary-General)
We, members of the Caribbean community, join with voices raised all over the world to condemn the brutal killing of George Floyd, a 46 year old resident of Minnesota on May 25, 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26 year old EMT shot in her home by police in Kentucky on March 13, 2020 and Tony McDade, 38 year old resident of Tallahassee shot by police on May 27 2020. We stand in solidarity with the family, friends and community of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, the African Americans and all those living in America of all races, genders, sexualities, abilities, ages, religions and ethnicities who have come out in their millions publicly to protest the most recent police killings, to condemn racism in all its forms, to remind us all that Black lives matter, that racism is an insidious, soul destroying, inhumane form of violence.
We note that the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade are not isolated or maverick occurrences, but part of a repeating pattern of unjust murders of African Americans which is related to systemic, institutionalized anti-Black racism enforced through continuous racial profiling of the Black population by the police and state apparatus.
We in the Caribbean share a common history with African Americans and Black folks living in the US. Many are also Caribbean people whose labour over generations has helped to build the United States of America and who have served and continued to serve that country. What is more, the racial order which has historically structured the United States, is the same racial order that structured the contemporary global racial order so that anti-Black racism in the powerful United States has massive global reach. We have withstood and overcome enslavement and indentureship, systems which were racist at their core and used racism to dominate, enslave and rule. Black folks living in the US (many of Caribbean heritage) and their communities supported our struggle to dismantle those systems: George Liele, WEB DuBois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, June Jordan, Audre Lorde and Claudia Jones, just to name a few.
We call on CARICOM and ALL Caribbean leaders to unite with us, the millions of African Americans, Black folks living in the US and other Americans of all ethnicities and the global community to:
• Call for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, and to demand that ALL those responsible for their deaths be brought to justice;
• Offer solidarity across national divides for the family, friends and community of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and all others who have been arrested, tear gassed and assaulted by law enforcement;
• Dismantle state endorsed racism and violence that makes itself visible through the incarceration, surveillance and deportation of Black folks;
• Call on the United States government to listen to the voices calling for an end to the institutionalization of racism in America in all its forms, and to commit to dismantling covert and overt racial discrimination and to enact the words of the American constitution, which states that all are “created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”;
We also call on CARICOM and its leaders to also take stock of the police and military killings in their own countries. At this time we remember especially and demand justice for Susan Bogle, 44-year-old disabled Jamaican woman, shot to death on May 27th in her home in August Town, St Andrew in a police-military raid. In every Caribbean country, one death by agents of the state, is one too many.
June 5, 2020.
Honor Ford-Smith, Jamaica/Canada
Joan Joy Grant Cummings, Jamaica/Canada
Rhoda Reddock,Trinidad & Tobago
Peggy Antrobus, Grenada/St. Vincent/Barbados
Judith Wedderburn, Jamaica
Nan Peacocke, Grenada/St. Vincent/Canada
Opal Palmer Adisa, Institute for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica
Chelsea Fung, Guyana/Canada
Monifa Adebola, Barbados
Vanda Radzik, Guyana
Kimalee Phillip , Caribbean Solidarity Network, Canada/Grenada
Danuta Radzik, Help & Shelter, Guyana
Alissa Trotz, Canada/Guyana
Kurt Williams, Trinidad & Tobago
Danielle Smith, Canada/Barbados
Angela Robertson, Canada
Alexandrina Wong, Antigua
Lynette Joseph-Brown, Individual, Guyana
Karen de Souza, Red Thread, Guyana
Wintress White, Guyana
Kirk Quevedo, Trinidad & Tobago
Akende Rudder, NGO, Trinidad and Tobago
Holly Bynoe, Tilting Axis, St Vincent and the Grenadines/Barbados
Ralph Murray, The Bahamas
Orchid Burnside, Bahamas
Annalee D Davis, Independent Visual Artist, Barbados
Beverley Mullings, Canada/Jamaica/United Kingdom
Terry Ann Roy, Queer Corner, Trinidad and Tobago
Akeema Driggs, USA
Latoya Joseph , Trinidad and Tobago
Raisa, Trinidad and Tobago
La Tosha Hart, Trinidad & Tobago
Megan Gill, Trinidad and Tobago
Lauriston S. Parris, Barbados
Kwailan X, Tobago
James Dupraj, Trinidad and Tobago
Pam Burnside, Bahamas
Amanda Francis, Trinidad and Tobago
Renuka Anandjit, Trinidad and Tobago
Marcia Forbes, 51% Coalition, Jamaica
Aduke Joseph- Caesar, Trinidad and Tobago
Natalie Bennett, Jamaica/United States
Marie Roach-Hepburn, The Bahamas
Meghan Ghent, Trinidad and Tobago
Diana Fox, Bridgewater State University, USA
Anastazia Carter, USA & The Bahamas
Jessica Jaja, St.Vincent and the Grenadines
Maya Trotz, United States
Mikia Carter, The Bahamas
Tarini Bhagwansingh, Trinidad
Kaye Hepburn, The Bahamas
Camille Hernandez-Ramdwar, Ryerson University, Trinidad&Tobago/Canada
Michael Edwards, University of The Bahamas, The Bahamas
Ro-Ann Mohammed, Barbados
Anique Jordan, Canada
Angelique. V. Nixon, Institute for Gender & Development Studies, The UWI, Trinidad & Tobago/The Bahamas
Natalie Wood, Black queer mother and artist, Trinidad and Canada
Lequanne Collins-Bacchus, Canada
Nevannah Norris, Canada
Junior Duplessis, Haiti, USA
Sharon Powell, Guyana/England
Nicole Wood, United States and Canada
Daphne Schalau, USVI & USA
Niala Maharaj, Trinidad and Tobago
Asiya Mohammed, Trinidad and Tobago
Carol Roach, Bahamas
Caroline Allen, Caribbean Association of Feminist Research and Action, Trinidad and Tobago/United Kingdom
Arlene Nash Ferguson, The Bahamas
Chandelle O’Neill, Trinidad & Tobago
Anaís Carter, The Bahamas
Jay Joseph, Trinidad and Tobago
Owen Bethel, Bahamas
Salima Bacchus-Hinds, Guyana
erna brodber, blackspace, jamaica
Letitia Pratt, The Bahamas
Xan-Xi, WE Artists’ Collective, The Bahamas
Donna Rose-Caesar, Jamaica/Trinidad &Tobago
Kimberly Palmer, St. Vincent / Canada
Karyn De Freitas, Trinidad & Tobago
Danielle Mohammed, Trinidad & Tobago
Giselle Fletcher, Trinidad & Tobago
Sandra McPhee, The Bahamas
Melba Peters, Canada
Azizah Hosein, Trinidad & Tobago/United States
Shivana Jalim, Trinidad and Tobago
David Austin, Canada
Satira Maharaj, Trinidad & Tobago
Rose-Cecilia Askew, The Bahamas/Barbados
Samantha Hallinger, St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Thelesha Gray, Guyana/United States
Akuzuru, Artist, Trinidad & Tobago
Corey J, Canada
Nicole Wood, United States and Canada
Camille Turner, Canada
Cathy Kleinhans, Jamaica
Winston James, University of California, Irvine, United States
Natalie Willis, Grand Bahama, The Bahamas
Dr Stephanie Fletcher-Lartey, Jamaican Association of Australia, Jamaica/Australia
Yvonne Bobb-Smith, Independent, Trinidad and Tobago
Karen Palmer, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines
Rhonda Bharath, Trinidad and Tobago
Karen Palmer, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines
Jennifer Jones, Jamaica
Abbyssinian Carto, United States/Guyana
Patrice Allen, Canada/Jamaica
Kurt Williams, Trinidad and Tobago
Nicole Burrowes, USA
Nikoli Attai, Trinidad & Tobago
Sheila Moyston, Canada
Hilary Nicholson, Jamaica
Dr. Amon Saba Saakana, Commissioning Editor, Karnak House,Trinidad & Tobago, United States
Emilie Jabouin, Canada
Karimah Rahman, Canada
Stephanie Leitch, Womantra, Trinidad and Tobago
Jade Nixon, Women and Gender Studies, University of Toronto, Canada
Asha Natalia Maharaj, Trinidad & Tobago
Esha Green, The Bahamas
Bianca Wagner, The Bahamas
K. Banton, United Kingdom
Vanisha Somauroo, United Kingdom
Josephine Whitehead, Help and Shelter, Guyana
Joel Simpson, SASOD, Guyana
Vidyaratha Kissoon, Guyana
Melinda Janki, Attorney-at-Law, Guyana
Ayo Dalgey-Dean, Guyana
Imani Duncan, Jamaica
Afi Ford Hopson, U.C.A.N. Theatre Company, Trinidad and Tobago
Raquel Thomas Caesar, Citizens, Against Rape, Guyana
Danielle Andrade, Jamaica
Kobe Smith, GRPA/YAM, Guyana
Diana McCaulay, Jamaica
Leonard Brown, Jamaica/Australia
Carol Narcisse, Jamaica
Alberta E. Whittle, University of Edinburgh, Barbados
Élysse Marcellin, Trinidad & Tobago
Michelle V. Rowley, Trinidad & Tobago/United States
Jiselle Griffith, Canada/Trinidad
Terese Joseph, USA/Trinidad/Grenada
Roshini Kempadoo, London/Guyana
Nicole Brown, Jamaica
Lorna Lee, Jamaica
Jeanette Campbell, ‘Jamaica
Nik Redman, Canada/Barbados
Colleen Wint-Bond, Jamaica
Patrick. E. Bernard, Trinidad & Tobago
Krystal Raghoo, Canada
