As your Eyewitness pecks out this piece, the jury’s still out on the American elections. And the way things are going, that’s not just a figure of speech! At least half a dozen court cases have already been filed over one thing or another, and some have already been dealt with. But not to worry folks…there’s no danger we’ll lose our “Guinness Book of Records” distinction of having the longest elections count in the world. Who knows, by the time you read this, even though your Eyewitness has “Georgia on his mind”, that state’s ballots might’ve been finished counting and you know what you know.
But what your Eyewitness wants to do is pick up from where he left off yesterday: the clear break in American politics that – like everything else they do up there – will affect the rest of the world, including lil ole Guyana. Now, while Donald Trump’s been called all sorts of names, including “racist”, one factoid that your Eyewitness found interesting is that the number of Blacks and Hispanics who voted for him increased!! So, it’s quite clear that the view of Trump from up close might be quite more nuanced than from over here.
What’s coming to the fore is that the question of “identity politics” has moved from sex, gender and colour to at last confront “race” frontally. Sure, we’ve been talking about race for the longest while, but, at long last, we’re moving away from the discussions wherein SOME “races” were seen as “problems” that needed to be addressed – the “Black Problem”; the “Brown Problem”; the “Yellow Problem”, etc. In America, there has been an acceptance at long last that there’s a “White Problem”! Have you ever thought about this, dear reader: that Trump’s supporters are dominated by a White demographic that feels threatened that all the advantages their colour was supposed to bequeath them are fast disappearing?
But that’s progress, and it has come like it always does – slowly, out of all sorts of turmoil, angst and frustrations. Change ain’t easy – and this is a change that’s affecting patterns of thought that have been embedded in societies for centuries. So yes, dear reader, that is what this American election is all about: the right to identify yourself whichever way you want. But the lines you choose to cleave, or be cleaved along: colour, race or creed, etc, should not be the lines of oppression.
So, we’ve finally reached a point where all mankind is slowly realising that we’re all one race or another.
So, if race is a problem, then we all should be looking for solutions. After the US election is called!
…in Guyana
Some folks think it’s funny that with 99.99% of Guyanese being non-white, we still have a “race problem” in Guyana. But for those of us who have to live here day in, day out, it ain’t funny, is it? Trouble is, just like we learn in psychology, that “abused children become abusive parents”, it applies to sociology, where “abused groups become abusive rulers”. And Lord knows, we in Guyana have been abused…for hundreds and hundreds of years, as PARTICULAR GROUPS – Africans, Indians, Chinese, Portuguese, Mixed!!
They also say that the first step to solving any problem – especially a social one – is to first recognise that we got a problem. But, in Guyana, there’s a stubborn streak in the few who might’ve transcended the race problem for one reason or another – to deny the right of the rest of society to talk about what they EXPERIENCE.
In the US, this was the dilemma of poor and less educated whites, who feel threatened and are still looking for the “advantage” they’re supposed to have.
So, as Oprah asks, can we talk?
…with the rain
Even though the meteorologists predicted that the intense rainfall would last till the weekend, your Eyewitness was quite thankful for the respite yesterday brought.
He took the opportunity to buy a pair of “long boots”.
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