Becoming Anti-Racist in Barbados: Q&A
This is a resource list for ALL white or ‘pass-fuh-white’ Bajans, and other white people living in Barbados.
If you are not racist, if you’ve been having conversations about race recently, if you’ve felt uncomfortable talking about race, if you don’t think race is an issue, if “All Lives Matter”, or if you are interested in becoming Anti-Racist…
This is for you!
With the increased visibility of racial injustices in the US, Bajans of all colours are talking more about race. This is a good thing. We felt that other White and White-passing Bajans may benefit from having access to responses in a local context when we hear things that don’t seem correct.
Note to all readers, this is an imperfect document which was written up quickly to have responses available. We’re squeezing this in between dirty diapers and work emails, so we can’t guarantee prompt edits or responses unfortunately, but we’ll try our best. 😬
If you have better resources, examples, explanations etc please let us know. If the tone is too extreme, or not extreme enough, note we are trying to reach many people, so have chosen what we hope will reach a large portion of the population. Where we miss the mark or get things wrong, let us know – we know we need to learn. And yeah…it real long. So is our history. Tek it one ting at a time.
Table of Contents
(Note: These links will each open an individual post, just keep scrolling if you just want to see everything in one place.)
Frequently Heard Claims
- “Racism is more of an American issue…”
- “I’m white and I’m not wealthy, I don’t have white privilege…”
- “Slavery happened years ago, why can’t people get over it?”
- “I have Black family and friends etc. I’m not racist…”
- “As a ‘white minority’ I’ve experienced more racism. What about reverse racism?”
- “I don’t see colour… Why don’t we just spread positivity?”
- “It’s not about race, it’s about class, etc.”
- “Indentured servants were slaves too!”
- “Black workers are lazy.”
- “If Black people spent their money more wisely they’d be more successful…”
- “My Black friends & family agree with me on this…”
- “Every race segregate and hire their relatives and friends, not just White people”
- “There are many Black people who have done very well for themselves”
- “All Lives Matter”
- “The Nelson Statue should stay, we can’t change history!”
- “ Having conversations about race in Barbados is divisive and will only stir up hatred and violence…”
- “I don’t like the tones of these conversations when they become angry and extreme!”
- “Black people sold others into slavery; other cultures enslaved people throughout history”
- “Some Black people were treated well under slavery”
- “I’m not a fan of Blackout Tuesday. What does it accomplish?”
- “Changing all of these brand names is foolishness”
Now I want to talk to all my Black friends and family about racism!
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How Racism Impacts Barbados, an Incomplete Sample
There are countless ways racism impacts people on a personal and systemic level in Barbados.
Unfortunately, we don’t have easy access to the same statistics that other countries do, but here are some things which several Bajans have shared as part of their experiences below:
As you read these points please remember that just because you may not have experienced or seen these things first hand does not mean that they do not happen or are untrue.
1. Unequal access to wealth and resources.
White people as a group, through early property ownership, have been able to invest, save, share, receive loans, start businesses, and build their income over generations in ways not available to Black people until recently. Many Black Bajans report having issues to this day receiving business loans, so they are unable to start businesses at the same rate.
As is often repeated, “Money makes money.”
While Black Barbadians have never been financially compensated in any way for being enslaved, the white slaveholders were provided financial compensation at the end of slavery. They were given sums on a case by case basis. You can look up your last name here and see if your family received money they were able to invest in themselves, which benefits you today whether directly or indirectly. Note that Black families were often forced to take on the last names of those who enslaved them, but did not receive this compensation.
Not all White Bajans are wealthy, but we are disproportionately represented in the middle, and upper ‘classes’ due to our historical head-start and our social proximity to those who are wealthy. Financial stability and community safety nets translate into health, education, power, security, and more which white Bajans of all financial backgrounds benefit from.
2. Unequal access to opportunities.
White and white-passing people are often more likely to receive “managerial” level positions, help one another find jobs, and more. Additionally, they are more likely to hold overseas citizenship which helps with access to overseas education, employment, health care, and they are able to go overseas without worrying about police brutality, racism in education, health care or from everyday citizens.
3. Unequal baseline physical and mental health
In addition to present-day wealth impacting access to healthcare, people who were enslaved did not benefit from basic levels of health care. Mental and physical health issues can be passed down through multiple generations and is being studied in a field known as epigenetics.
4. Unequal access to justice, safety, law.
- Treatment and access to courts and justice.
Due to their wealth and influence, white people are better able to have favourable outcomes in courts of laws, resulting in them being less likely to be prosecuted, serve time in prison, and more. White people in Barbados often have the means and know-how to settle out of court, resulting in clean records which make it easier to find employment and more, even when they do commit crimes.
Additionally, Black people often fear reporting racist incidents to those in authority, because they expect to be disregarded or even punished (and often are). White people are able to report discrimination with the comfortable knowledge that an authority will probably support them in some way.
- Treatment by police.
“My clients are being taken into police custody and held without charge for days on end and moved around different police stations. That is unacceptable”.
Injustices are absolutely committed by local police particularly in low-income communities, Attorney Lalu Hanuman explained in the Barbados Advocate article ‘Not Enough’ by Tre Graves on June 14th 2020.
Due to the connections that most white people have with other affluent people, white skin often serves as automatic protection against police misconduct because it is recognized that there will more likely be repercussions. In 2015, Selwyn Knight, a Black Bajan, was murdered by a police officer who remains out on bail and still has not been tried in court, something which seems unlikely to have occurred if the victims were white.
- Treatment by citizens.
Many Black Bajans report receiving threats from white Bajans in private and on social media, particularly when they talk about racial injustices. While this is deplorable on many levels, white people may feel they are able to do so knowing even subconsciously they have access to better treatment in the courts.
5. Subtle and overt racism about physical appearance and overall ‘acceptability’.
While most people avoid what they consider overt expressions of racism such as slurs, there are still many racist ideas that are repeated and function harmfully in society cloaked in other terms, phrases and ideas. It is important to recognize that whether we intend to be racist or not, we can all perpetuate racist ideas unless we examine our beliefs and are willing to change. Don’t be so afraid of being labelled ‘racist’ that you spend your energy being defensive and refuse to listen and examine your thinking.
- Ideas around Beauty
Everything from how hair can be worn in professional and academic settings, comments about ‘good’ or ‘bad’ hair, lighter skinned and mixed people being praised for their beauty, while darker skinned people might hear that they are beautiful ‘for a black girl’ etc.
BLP parliamentarian, Dr Sonia Browne, shared something many of us are familiar with in Barbados Today regarding one of her patients, “.. who has two sons and she favoured the lighter-skinned one, saying he was more handsome.” This message is repeated in many ways in our society.
- Belittling Black experiences and identity
We can see this in effect when white adults refer to other adult men and women as “boys” or “girls” for eg. Or prescribing simplistic solutions to the problems experienced by segments of the Black populations such as, “If Black people spent their money more wisely they’d be more successful…”
- Associating Black people with criminality, violence, laziness etc.
While it is probably less common than it is in the US, black people are still more likely to have the police called on them for simply being seen in a white/affluent neighborhood in Barbados despite having done nothing wrong.
Even business class professionals are sometimes followed by staff ‘to make sure they are going to pay their bill’ at restaurants or bars, simply because they are Black.
6. Differing levels of service
Ever waited a long time to get served in Barbados? Yes, we’re known for that! But white people often are given special treatment, whether served faster, or with a higher level of service, than Black people.
In fact, even Barbados Labour Party parliamentarian Dr Sonia Browne is not immune, sharing in Barbados Today: “When I was building my house I went to buy tiles. I walked all over the store, no one came to my assistance, but then a white woman came in and the attendants rushed towards her.”
It may be tempting to dismiss stories such as these as ‘coincidence’ but we’d like to challenge you listen to the collective experiences of many Black Bajans and consider whether there could be something more at play here…
7. Segregation.
Well into the 1960’s there were regulations which did not allow Black Barbadians and White Barbadians to occupy the same spaces, and even though these are no longer legal, the impacts continue to this day.
Whether intentional or not, white people often socialize mainly with white people, support mainly white businesses, go to ‘whiter’ schools, go to white gyms, live in white neighborhoods and so on. This limits everyone’s success and limits the potential of all races. It also means that white Bajans are often somewhat oblivious to the realities and issues facing other Bajans because we become comfortable in our bubble.
As a white / white-passing person, how and why should I address racism?
One way to combat racism is for individuals to be more aware and share this awareness with others, which can translate into action towards dismantling personal and systemic racism.
It’s important that we learn to recognize what racism actually is, and to call it out each and every time we hear it, so people are aware of what is unacceptable.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
— Desmond Tutu
It’s unlikely one conversation will change someone’s views, but multiple conversations over time, with many people, is one of the most effective ways to weed out racism. People are most likely to listen to their peers and family members, so we must take responsibility and energy to have these conversations, even if they are uncomfortable and awkward, especially with friends, family, coworkers, etc.
No one is asking you to be perfect, but it is our responsibility for past, current, and future generations to do the best we can.
It is not enough to be “not racist”, we must work to be anti-racist.
If you start to feel defensive, try to pause and examine that before just reacting.
Don’t get sucked into the reflexive white defensiveness that was taught to our ancestors 400 years ago to maintain the status quo for those who were exploiting others in the name of capitalism.
As White people we need to learn that the idea of Whiteness was not developed simply as a description of your skin tone, but as an ideology society created, a club where “the members go through life accepting the benefits of membership, without thinking about the cost” to others, as Noel Ignatiev puts it. Anti-racist work is therefore not a movement against white people, but a way to take examine and take apart ideas of racial entitlement that rely on the exclusion others.
Guilt and shame are not the point of this, but if you have those feelings sit with them for a bit, then translate into action to build a better world, and continue making Barbados an even more exemplary society!
It’s not just talk, though…
See Okay What Else Should I Do? and Further Resources.
Frequently Heard Claims:
You may have heard some or all of these, which are only the tip of the iceberg...
“Racism is more of an American issue. Barbados doesn’t have the same level of racism, our government is run by Black people! People are trying to ‘import’ a problem that doesn’t exist here…”
Because of our drastically different demographics, racism in Barbados may look and sound slightly different but it still affects the lives of Barbadians and the structure of Barbadian society today in both large and small ways.
Please see How Racism Impacts Barbados for some examples.
While Barbados may not have the same level of police brutality as the USA, our shared history of slavery means we have more in common than it might appear on the surface.
In fact, Barbados played a pivotal historical role in the ways that Slavery was implemented across the USA and the very concepts of “Whiteness” and “Blackness” that lie at heart of racism in society today.
The below instagram graphics provide a short summary, and if you would like to dig deeper we have further below provided more in-depth context.
^ back to top for Q&A links, or keep on scrolling for the long version
While we may now take for-granted the terms ‘white’ and ‘black’ as merely obvious physical descriptors, in 1680 the concept of ‘white’ or ‘black’ was such a new idea that Anglican clergyman, Morgan Godwyn writing about Barbados specifically, had to explain to his readers at the time what he meant by ‘white’ people.
In order to prevent enslaved Africans and their descendants from being able to have legal rights or recognition, the category of ‘Black’ was legally created, along with a host of negative attributes to justify and maintain their enslavement.
While Barbadians have thought of sugar and sunshine as our main exports, most of us are woefully ignorant of one of our earliest exports…racist ideologies.
During this time the white population of Barbados was already beginning to shrink while the ‘black’ population increased.
“In 1660 Barbados had become the second English colony in America to have a black majority. By 1700, 75 percent of the island’s population was black and enslaved, making Barbados the most Africanized colony in European America. *
The planters knew that the rapid growth of a rightfully hostile and angry population of enslaved people exposed them to considerable risks.
…planters responded to the growing sense of crisis by scrambling, without much success, to recruit more whites to the island and by working, apparently more successfully, to create a sense of solidarity among the shrinking proportion of whites in Barbados…
Willoughby’s message was clear: the great planters had to find some way of persuading the servants and small planters that they had reason to defend the island. The great planters decided to persuade these white men that there were advantages to being a white man in Barbados.*
This took all the doctors, fisherman, artists, philosophers, farmers etc from many different African tribes and made them one ‘lesser’ thing, and took all the English, Scotts, Irish, Germans… whether criminal, working class or the politically elite, plantocracy, overseer or merchants and made them all ‘White’, legally recognized, and protected.
Many of these new ideas and terminologies were solidified in The Barbados Slave codes of 1661 which were exported throughout the USA and assisted in making slavery and white supremacy formal in those places — its echos remain with both our societies today.
“Throughout British North America, slavery evolved in practice before it was codified into law. The Barbados slave code of 1661 marked the beginning of the legal codification of slavery.
This creation of Whiteness gave ‘white’ people a vested interest in defending ‘white’ politics. It made the poor white person believe he had more in common with the land owning planter, than the enslaved ‘black’ man that he was in the hot sun with day in and day out. We can see that this was intentional and served the powers that be very well for a long time.
It is important for White Bajans to recognize the ways that this ‘white identity’ has mapped onto our current automatic defensiveness whenever the effects of “whiteness” are criticized or pointed out. We may interpret criticism of ‘colonialism’ as rejections of ourselves.
This is the trick that racist concepts have been playing on all us for centuries.
The concept of racial ‘whiteness’ was created as a tool of social control, to prevent Black and White people from working together towards justice.
It plays that same role today.
We have inherited our ‘social whiteness’ and it would be dishonest to deny it because it still functions in society affording us privileges in ways we are often blind to but neither are we so defined by that idea of ‘whiteness’ that we have to defend its status in society for fear of being rejected ourselves. After-all we are more than that — we are part Caucasian; whether English, Scott, Irish or Italian, and we are part West African with that lineage lost into ‘blackness’, some of us are Indian and Asian and every other mix of the world in our blood that makes us light skinned, white Caribbean people.
So again, while racism in Barbados may not look the same as it does in American today, the concepts, biases, and ideologies at the heart of racism are a product of our unique history, a legacy we did not magically leave behind on emancipation day.
It is important to note that Black people, both as individuals and as governments, are are not immune to absorbing and repeating these racist systems of thought.
Even if all the White people in Barbados disappeared overnight, the racist ideologies and biases formed here during the 1600s would still have a negative affect in our society. However, it is our responsibility as those who benefit the most, and are hurt the least by racism to examine and change ourselves; to recognize our privilege, to admit to the racist biases we’ve inherited and left unchallenged, and to do our part to make Barbados a better place for everyone.
Further Reading:
*Sweet Negotiations: Sugar, Slavery, and Plantation Agriculture in Early Barbados — book Russell R. Menard
“I’m white and I’m not wealthy, I don’t have many privileges, I worked hard to get where I am today!”
White Privilege plays a significant role in the conversation around racism in Barbados today. This is a term used to describe the unearned head-starts and advantages that come as a result of having lighter skin.
Of course, being white doesn’t guarantee wealth or an easy ride, however, let’s pretend for one moment that life is a video game: everyone runs into tough obstacles, “bad guys and bosses”. But having lighter skin means you’ve been playing the “game” of life on an easier level than someone with darker skin. Of course your life has had setbacks and difficulties! There are other privileges that make the “game” of life easier or harder — for example being born male, or living with a disability. We are all somewhere in the ‘web of privilege’ and some of us have more advantages than others, and as White people we generally have more than many.
While being white may not have given you direct access to increased wealth, it has probably given you access to a security net unavailable to many of your Black counterparts.
As many people will say “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”.
Being white has most likely meant increased connections with other white people who have increased resources which grants easier access to job opportunities, financial help in times of emergency and so on.
Here are a few aspects of privilege that are important to remember:
- Those that benefit from privilege will naturally find it more difficult to notice.
“As a man of privilege, I learned this the hard way:
A barefoot pedestrian is wounded by sharp stones and twigs on the road, that are completely unnoticed by those wearing boots.
In the same way, broad patterns of injustice in our societies are invisible to privileged people, but painfully obvious to the people directly affected.
Whenever you find yourself saying “Well, I don’t encounter that, so I’m not sure it happens”, you should bite your tongue.”
- Not all privilege is bad and the goal is not to take away all your privileges.
Access to quality education, healthcare, legal protection, justice and so on are all privileges or rights that everyone should have. The goal is not to remove these but prevent unequal access to these based on race, class or wealth.
- Recognizing privilege does not negate your hard work.
Consider two people running a race. One on a road paved before they were born, and the other on a thorny, rocky, marl path. Both people have to put in the effort and RUN, both people may get tired, out of breath, get a ‘stitch’ or need to pause. The race takes effort from everyone, but it is certainly easier on the paved path. You may have worked hard to get where you are, it may even feel like you started with ‘nothing’, but remember there are others with less privilege working two, three or four times as hard behind the scenes in order to get the same results or less.
- Having your privilege ‘called out’ or taking steps towards recognizing your own privilege can feel uncomfortable.
Privileged distress is that sense of persecution you feel when you start to lose an unfair advantage that you have always taken for granted. You may think to yourself, I never asked for these advantages, and admitting to to them makes me feel like a bad person.
The solution to this however, is not to retreat from the discomfort by demanding that those who have been genuinely disadvantaged return to the status quo. It is ok recognize and admit your feelings of discomfort. A sunburn for example is very real and it may really hurt. But it does not compare to a heart attack and it is not ok to insist your discomfort is treated with priority over the very real issues at hand.
- Inheriting privileges does not make you a bad person.
We need to condition ourselves to notice our unfair advantages, not so that we can wallow in personal guilt, which is pointless, but in order to add fuel to our determination to work to change the unfairness in our societal systems and dismantle the racism that props them up.
“Slavery happened 200 years ago, why can’t people get over it? It’s much better now for current generations”
The impacts of slavery continue to this day; and if you feel it’s something someone can “get over” you are fortunate to not be feeling the worst of those impacts.
If you are white you have benefited, directly and indirectly, from slavery over generations up to and including the current day. This includes financially and a baseline level of physical and mental health. The playing field for white and Black Barbadians was never level and still isn’t to do this day, even compared to lower income Whites. Please see How Racism Impacts Barbados for some examples of how the impacts of slavery continues today.
Although slavery was formally ended by the British in 1807 and abolished in Barbados nearly 30 years later, Black people in Barbados did not have the same rights and opportunities as white people, even poor white people, until the middle of the 20th Century.
This is not ancient history.
“The British slave trade officially ended in 1807, making the buying and selling of slaves from Africa illegal; however, slavery itself had not ended. It was not until 1 August 1834 that slavery ended in the British Caribbean following legislation passed the previous year. This was followed by a period of apprenticeship with freedom coming in 1838.
Even after the end of slavery and apprenticeship the Caribbean was not totally free. Former enslaved people received no compensation and had limited representation in the legislatures. Indentured labour from India and China was introduced after slavery. This system resulted in much abuse and was not abolished until the early part of the 20th century. After indentureship, Indians and Africans struggled to own land and create their own communities.” (Citation here)
Many white families in Barbados are also beneficiaries of the payments given out to former slavers and their descendants. Having access to that money, whether small or large sums, at a time when Black people still could not own the land they built homes on and were apprenticed to plantations gave white Barbadians a leg up that remains unacknowledged to this day.
Here is the list of families associated with plantations in Barbados who received compensation from Britain in the millions of dollars for their losses due to the abolition of slavery. Families that received this money were able to invest in themselves, whether through property, business development or education which create generational stability and wealth. Note that Black families were forced to take on the last names of those who enslaved them, but did not receive this compensation.
The 1937 riots in Barbados were about the unequal pay offered to the Black working class.
“On July 26, 1937, social unrest erupted in Bridgetown. Intensifying on July 27, it soon spread to some rural districts. Known as the 1937 Labour rebellion, these events ushered in a period of socio-political change that culminated in the attainment of independence on November 30, 1966.
In 1937, Barbados was a country greatly divided by race, with the white elite holding economic and political power. The native black population was employed mainly in the agricultural sector and suffering from poverty. There was a lack of opportunity and employment in the area which kept the common man down and was not advanced due to the dismal labour conditions and social/economic malaise. The racial structure that ruled the social, economic and political landscape rigidly reinforced these conditions. Barbados was a country still ruled by the plantation and their owners even one hundred years after slavery was abolished.” (Citation here)
Up to the late 1960’s, established custom meant that Black Barbadians could not occupy the same spaces as white Barbadians. It continues to this day.
Barbadians have not had a level playing field, and it is not as easy as simply shrugging off slavery and apprenticeship in 1838 and magically starting at the same place as white Bajans, even poor white Bajans.
Credits:
Further context & research for this section was kindly provided by Risée Chaderton-Charles.
“I’m not racist, I have Black family, partners, and friends. My ancestry has Black people in it. How can I be racist?”
Most people in the Caribbean have mixed ancestry, friends, and family. However, only certain people with lighter skin who “pass” as white people are given access to certain privileges and resources as discussed above.
While most Bajans may live their lives treating individual black counterparts as friends, family and equals that is only the tip of the iceberg where it comes to how racism operates.
“Some of the racism that has hurt me the most has had nothing to do with hatred... And a lot of the reinforcement of systemic racism comes from indifference.
It is doing your best to focus on personal feeling and emotion — and centering the conversation on your own identity and “goodness” — in lieu of doing the actual hard-work of addressing what actually needs to be done for the people who work with and below you..”.
In many ways it would be helpful if we stopped thinking of ‘racism’ as primarily a personal moral failing (ie. individuals disliking each other because of race), and instead a set of social beliefs and norms that we have ALL inherited and need to take action to try to actively SEE and shift. Slavery didn’t happen because white people were inherently racist and disliked Black people. White people at the time created racists beliefs and world views so they could justify slavery and not feel bad about it.
“Black people were not enslaved because people were racist. …White slave owners had to create a reason to be able to look at themselves in the mirror and not hate themselves.
The very root of racism is a defense against white self-hatred.
The moment my white brothers and sisters realize they don’t have to defend themselves is the moment they will stop lashing out. A defensive person is often more dangerous than one at peace, just as a cornered dog is a thing to be scared of.”
– Petula Miller
Racism is an entire way of viewing the world that was established and maintained for generations… and while we think we ‘ended’ it by stopping the most egregious aspects of it (slavery), all the intertwined threads that kept the whole thing working in the first place are still embedded throughout society as a whole and our minds as individuals unless we are active to un-pick them.
Recognizing racist beliefs, biases and behaviors in ourselves or others doesn’t mean that we are necessarily bad people. Indeed all of us inherit some of these “social beliefs and norms” whether we are black or white, but often it is much more difficult for white people to recognize we have these because they don’t ‘hurt’ us as obviously.
As author Ibram X. Kendi puts it,
“The heartbeat of racism is denial, and the heartbeat of anti racism is confession.”
“As a ‘white minority’ I’ve experienced more racism than Black people in the Caribbean. What about reverse racism?”
There is often confusion about the term “racism”. It’s important to note that white people may occasionally experience prejudice based on our skin tone, it is not the same thing as the systemic and individual racism faced by people of colour. This may be different from the original definition of racism you learned! Language has since evolved to take into the broader historical origins of racism, and we are all smart enough to make minor changes to our language.
In fact, Webster’s Dictionary will soon be updating the definition of racism to reflect this more accurately.
From ACLRC:
“Assumptions and stereotypes about white people are examples of racial prejudice, not racism. Racial prejudice refers to a set of discriminatory or derogatory attitudes based on assumptions deriving from perceptions about race and/or skin colour. Thus, racial prejudice can indeed be directed at white people (e.g., white people can’t dance [side note we know as Bajans this isn’t always true!]) but is not considered racism because of the systemic relationship of power. When backed with power, prejudice results in acts of discrimination and oppression against groups or individuals […]
Ricky Sherover-Marcuse asserts that “we should not confuse the occasional mistreatment experienced by whites at the hands of people of color with the systematic and institutionalized mistreatment experienced by people of color at the hands of whites” (“A Working Definition of Racism,” p. 2). While expressions of racial prejudice directed at white people may hurt the white person/people individually or personally, and are never to be condoned, they do not have the same power or authority to affect the white person’s social/economic/political location and privileges. (See definition of White Privilege/White-Skin Privilege)
Reverse racism is a myth because it tries to ignore the fundamental question of who historically holds more power/privilege between the individuals/groups involved; the myth of reverse racism assumes that racism occurs on a so-called level playing field.”
Furthermore, sometimes when we make claims of “racism” as white people what we are really reacting to is the discomfort of having our own inherited racist ideas being noticed and called out. Noticing and identifying racist concepts is not the same as racism.
By examining the history of how and why racist ideas were formed in the 1600s, and how they have functioned since in society we can see that it is substantially different than anti-white prejudices.
We can use any racial discrimination we may have experienced due to our race as a starting point to increase our empathy. After-all, if these relatively small events of discrimination have been harmful to you, despite the many ways you have privilege, imagine how much more difficult it can be for Black people who experience both prejudice and racism on a large scale level without the historical privileges and advantages of being white.
“I don’t see colour. Why do we have to bring race into everything and make things so divisive? Why don’t we just spread positivity?”
Being “colour blind” used to be shared as a way to “prove” we are not racist. However, it is not helpful as we need to acknowledge our differences in order to work towards a better future.
You see, researchers have coined this term “color blindness” to describe a learned behavior where we pretend that we don’t notice race. If you happen to be surrounded by a bunch of people who look like you, that’s purely accidental. Now, color blindness, in my view, doesn’t mean that there’s no racial discrimination, and there’s fairness. It doesn’t mean that at all. It doesn’t ensure it. In my view, color blindness is very dangerous because it means we’re ignoring the problem.
…So I think it’s time for us to be comfortable with the uncomfortable conversation about race: all of us, if we truly believe in equal rights and equal opportunity…, I think we have to have real conversations about this issue. We cannot afford to be color blind. We have to be color brave. We have to be willing, as teachers and parents and entrepreneurs and scientists, we have to be willing to have proactive conversations about race with honesty and understanding and courage, not because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s the smart thing to do, because our businesses and our products and our science, our research, all of that will be better…
— Mellody Hobson, Color blind or color brave?
“Not seeing colour” can also erase the identities and experiences of people.
Race unfortunately does impact countless aspects of our society, we need to recognize that in order to spread actionable positivity — making things better with actions and not just words.
If want to live in a truly ‘post-racial’ society then we have to be willing to do work to get there.
We have to honestly examine what race and racism ACTUALLY is; not just what we assume it is. We have to ask who invented these concepts of White and Black (& Native, Asian), why they invented them and how they have been defined and been at work in our societies forming our assumptions, biases, and behavior for generations.
We don’t get to skip to the happy ending. Wishing does not make it so. We can’t leave the doctors office and ‘wish away’ the cancer without identifying it and taking the steps to get rid of it, or believe that very roughly chopping out the original tumor was enough even after it had metastasized throughout society…
We have to really take the time as individuals and groups to examine these things without guilt and defensiveness stopping the examination before it begins.
This is not a dangerous ‘re-opening’ of old wounds. This is an illness deep in our bones and we have to understand it first before we get to claim ‘remission’.
Further reading:
Dear White people, stop saying you “don’t see color”.
“ People want to make everything into a race issue, when it’s a really a class issue etc.”
Let’s assume for one moment that it is ‘really a class issue’, have you stopped to asked yourself; Why is it that the “upper class” of Barbados tends to be disproportionately white?
It is linked to systemic racism as discussed in How Racism Impacts Barbados. Sadly, today race is connected to everything, from the quality of the healthcare and education we receive, to how we are treated in public and private. If you haven’t felt this, congratulations — that’s an example of our privilege .
“Indentured servants were slaves too! “
White indentured servants experienced hardships, and some may have even been forced into labour. However, there are many important distinctions:
- Their children were not born into indentured servitude, as Black peoples’ children were born into enslavement.
- Legally the European laws which governed the Caribbean did not consider any whites as enslaved peoples. This provided many protections, such as being able to use courts of law if they were wronged, something to which African descended people who were enslaved did not have access. Importantly, White people, no matter how badly they were actually treated during their indentureship were always recognized as fully human individuals, with legal rights. Enslaved Africans were not. This has had long lasting repercussions.
- Most had contracts, after which they would have land or be compensated financially. Even if not all were fairly compensated and were trapped in cycles of poverty, it is not the same thing as being enslaved without even the option of a contract or compensation.
- When slavery was “over”, the whites were more likely to be given opportunities in society such as “management positions”, were allowed to own land, join certain clubs which gave them access to other opportunities, etc. Their status as ‘white people’ gave them opportunities for upward mobility that was not as available to freed Black individuals.
In summary, comparing indentured servants to enslaved people discounts the past and current experiences of African descended people.
For more reading on this:
“White people have better jobs because they work better…Black workers are lazy. Black workers lack managerial skills, initiative etc.”
Statements like these reveal some of the deeply rooted racist concepts that have hurt Black people in Barbados for generations. These ideas are rooted in a Slavery-model where white people justified their violent ‘driving’ of Black workers using force by claiming that Black people were inherently lazy and that without the institution of slavery they would not be industrious.
These myths are patently untrue. If anything, people without privilege typically have to work harder to achieve the same level of success.
One of the features of racist thinking is that it gives white people the benefit of the doubt, where it does not for Black people.
“I am tired because the sun is hot...” versus ”They are tired because they are lazy.”
Racism recognizes individual circumstances and realities for white people, for example “This particular white worker is having a hard time at home, has a young baby keeping him up at night, is having a hard time getting motivated…”, versus attributing broad negative moral attributes to Black people in the same situations “See?!.. They just want any excuse not to work!”
The truth of course is that the same individual variance we see among white people and their work ethic, motivation or skills exists among Black individuals as well. Additionally, White Privilege has meant much greater access to both explicit and implicit education for white people over generations. White people have had the access to business building tools for much longer and pass on skills and knowledge to their children which they may take for granted.
The solution is not to keep those skills and access to meaningful work within our small circle but to recognize gaps in education and resources and do our part to assist filling in those gaps with increased opportunities and skill building instead of assuming and assigning negative values to Black coworkers and employees.
“If Black people would just stop spending money on frivolous items such as weave, alcohol, Kadooment costumes, cell phones, direct tv etc. they would be more successful.”
The sentiment takes many forms but its underlying claim is that the position of Black Barbadians in society is their own fault for spending money on items deemed ‘too expensive’ or unimportant by a white person instead of diligently saving.
The assumption that ‘Black people would do better if they saved better or spent more wisely’ conveniently ignores that many have managed to survive and even thrive on a significantly smaller income across multiple generations.
The money management skills of a low-income earner, supporting multiple children with Barbados’ high cost of living may, in some ways, surpass that of any ‘my-Dad-started-this-business-CEO’. It also conveniently ignores the many white people, who ‘mess up’, badly invest and spend frivolously but by merit of their safety nets survive to make more money and either learn or spend foolishly once again.
Additionally, white people often were given access to investment opportunities and skills, “invisible opportunities and skill sets” that many in middle to upper classes do not even notice they’ve had access to growing up.
Claims such as this one also fail to take into consideration a few more important realities:
- Poverty is expensive.
When you have less cash, you are often forced to spend more cash for immediate needs. White Bajans may be able to bulk-buy from Pricesmart and spend less per unit on grocery items for example. However, that takes having the extra cash up-front. Paying cash for large purchases, is almost always cheaper than lay-away and a healthy diet, while more expensive in the short run, is cheaper than chronic disease in the long-term. These are just easy examples, but the principle applies in many aspects of life. Overall, having less money is an expensive way to live, and conversely money is what makes more money.
In general, having more access to resources means you are far more capable of thinking in terms of ‘the big picture’ rather than exerting all your energy focusing on just staying afloat in the short term.
‘Saving money’ takes time, energy and money.
When people are struggling to make ends meet those things are often already scarce and when a little bit of any of them becomes available our human psychology is wired for us to use them to help us survive the immediate moment, especially if other aspects of our life are already difficult.
The hardships of poverty can cut off long-term thinking components of the brain. While economically it might only make sense to splurge if you have ‘extra’ cash, psychologically all humans need ways to cope and survive. Not just the ones with extra cash lying around. “What if the psychology of poverty, which can appear so irrational to those not in poverty, is actually “the most rational response to a world of chaos and unpredictable outcomes,” writes Andrew Golis.
Poverty is not a lack of knowledge or character.
Money-management training has almost no effect at all in situations where people struggle to meet their basic needs because as Princeton University professor, Eldar Shafir, explains “It’s like teaching someone to swim and then throwing them into a stormy sea.” Lower income people do not make “bad decisions” because they are “bad”, but because they’re living in a context in which anyone would make “less than perfect” decisions.
“All the data shows it isn’t about poor people, it’s about people who happen to be in poverty. All the data suggests it is not the person, it’s the context they’re inhabiting.”
It is important to remember that a key feature of Racist Ideology is that it blames Black people for the situations they find themselves in rather than examining the larger context and circumstances that have led to their current reality.
It’s so easy to blame people, feel “better than”, and take the route out that we are not responsible for others’ poverty, it’s entirely their fault. As a society, when people are living in low income situations we all must work to improve the status quo, but especially those of us with inherited economic and social power.
Finally, if someone has been dealing with systemic racism for generations, and wants to buy themself something, it’s hard to do as Bajans but “mind yuh business!” and spend that critical energy helping instead of critiquing!
“My Black friends or family agree with me on this”
There are as many opinions as there are people. If you have Black people in your life who do not feel they have experienced the brunt of racism, that does not mean that other Black people do not.
Also while Black people cannot be racist towards white people in a meaningful sense (racism is not the same as anti-white prejudices) they are not immune to absorbing and repeating the racist world views and ideas that have impacted society for so long.
“Black people and other minorities (Indian, Chinese, etc) do the same things that white people do here — they also socialize mainly with Black people, and hire their relatives and friends.”
Statistically, it makes sense for Black people to mostly socialize with and support one another — Black people are over 90% of the island’s population.
It is also common for many reasons for minorities of any ethnicity to socialize with each other to an extent, as we often lime with our families who are racially similiar and then our social circles extend from there.
However, when the people with the most economic power primarily lime with one another, this creates a place where power and opportunity stays in the hands of the wealthy.
We all very well know that through socializing, we learn about job opportunities, investment opportunities, and we “help each other out” in a million ways big and small.
It feels natural to help out our family and friends, but by doing this we often exclude (perhaps unintentionally) others who are just as deserving. This happens all over the world and is not specific to Barbados, but it certainly is one of the most obvious and impactful examples of how systemic racism negatively impacts the people of the island.
Also consider the ways that keeping within our ‘White Bubble’ can also reinforce racist ideas and behaviors because there is no one to challenge our assumptions about the way the world really is for everyone else.
This removes us from the motivation to use our positions of Privilege to help the rest of the country to advance and improve. For example, if all white children go to the same ‘white’ private schools, then it is much less likely for us to not notice the problems in the wider school system because they don’t affect us and in turn we are less likely to do our part to help correct those problems. This perpetuates an inequality in education, which affects job opportunities and so on and so forth.
Remember, you might not INTEND for a behaviour to be harmful, but that doesn’t stop the results from being harmful. The onus is on us to examine and change where we cause harm, regardless of our initial intentions.
If you feel alarmed, fearful or attacked when you come across initiatives to support Black Businesses (eg. #bajanblackout), we would challenge you to examine those feelings. Remember, it’s not about punishing you for being white. It’s about making sure the path to success is not blocked for those who are not.
We have a responsibility to Barbadian society to help pave an equitable path forward for all segments of Barbadians. And if you’re already doing your part then you have nothing to worry about, don’t get sucked into the reflexive white defensiveness that was taught to our ancestors 400 years ago to maintain the status quo for those who were exploiting others in the name of capitalism.
Continue to reflect and examine , because there’s always room for improvement for ALL of us in forging a better Barbados.
“There are many Black people who have done very well for themselves despite everything, these other things are just excuses.”
Yes, of course many Black people overcame systems set up against them to do incredibly well. But on average Black people have had to work much harder than white people for these same outcomes, and it is unfair to hold everyone up to these exceptional standards when the playing field should simply be more level for everyone.
“All Lives Matter!”
Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean everyone’s life is unimportant, it just means their lives are currently under greater threat than white lives. By saying “all lives matter” you are, either intentionally or unintentionally, undermining their cause. There are many articles on this you can easily find, and many simple analogies such as “If someone’s house is burning and community members are helping to put out the fire, you don’t run up and say ‘my house matters too!’ if your house isn’t on fire”.
If you are Christian and familiar with Luke 15 parable of the sheep, you will find another example further below.
“We can’t condone looting and Violence in the US!
While we are focusing on Barbados, we encourage you to spend a few minutes researching this on your own time as there is no shortage of discussion.
If you feel the need to draw attention to looting, rioting or other civilian crime that is frequently brought up during conversations centered on Racism and Black Lives Matter, but you have NOT been consistently and vocally speaking up and or doing something about Police Brutality, and the many other symptoms of Systemic Racism that have been affecting Black people for generations, we would challenge to to examine what your motives are and why one of those things gets your voice, while the other is largely ignored.
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that violence against Black people needs to end as soon as possible, whether direct violence from the police against Black people and Black Trans people, or indirect violence such as high Black maternity rates of death, lack of healthcare and pain medication for Black people.
“The Nelson Statue should stay, we can’t get rid of everything associated with slavery or we’d have no history left!”
Discussions surrounding the desire to remove the Statue of Nelson from its position of honor in Broad Street are not new, and have been ongoing for several decades. Despite what is often lamented, it has nothing to do with erasing or attempting to rewrite history, as that is both impossible and certainly not the point.
This statue was erected during the time of Slavery by the White elite in power to celebrate Nelson’s role in keeping Barbados a ‘safe British Colony’. The veracity of this narrative has been called into question by historians and has been determined to be a myth. Furthermore, not only did Nelson profit from the enslavement of people, he actively opposed abolitionists and used his significant position of influence to vigorously defend slavery. In fact the influence of figures like Nelson and his similarly minded peers are credited with helping to ensure that the early abolition campaigns of the 1780s and 1790s ended in failure.
As Barbadians can be aware of aspects of our shared history without choosing to glorify them. This is an opportunity to reflect on which historical figures we want to literally put up on a pedestal and actively celebrate. It is also an opportunity for White Bajans to self-reflect and examine how our whiteness can cause us to have a reflexive defensive position about a statue of a person we don’t actually care that much about, and value our historical nostalgia more than the actual historical suffering of Black Barbadians.
Many proposals, such as putting the statue in a museum with context, dropping him in the sea to build some reefs (he was a naval man, after all!), or simply getting rid of them are being discussed. If you are someone who is “white passing” in Barbados, you have received benefits of racism, and would be better to first listen and amplify the opinions of Black people, instead of inserting your own opinion for this matter. This applies to most anti-racism work.
Sign the petition for removal of the statue here.
To go beyond Barbados, the great grandson of Thomas Jefferson wants his statues removed. In this op-ed for Newsweek he shares:
“Imagine what it would feel like if the person you loved most was killed or raped. Then, someone thought it would be a great idea to erect a huge statue in your neighborhood to honor them — no, not your loved one, but the monster who hurt them beyond repair. I’m sorry to be so graphic and blunt, but that is how many people feel each time they pass a public square or park with a statue of their ancestors’ slave master, a murderer, or a white supremacist.”
Read more of the op-ed here.
“If people stir up these conversations about race it is a slippery slope. This focus on the negative just creates divisions which stir up hatred and will lead to violence/revenge. Just look at Mugabe’s Zimbabwe etc…”
It is extremely important for white Bajans to recognize that fear has always been one of the main mechanisms of racism.
From as early as the 1660s fear of rebellion and revenge from a growing population of enslaved African people was a driving factor leading to the development of the racial ideologies we have inherited aspects of today. The racist idea that Black people are particularly violent and dangerous in nature and needed to be strictly controlled and subdued was cultivated at this time, along with an intentional effort to unify all Europeans regardless of nationality or class as ‘White people’, while giving them legal protection and enlisting their help to ‘control’ the enslaved population.
This fear of Black violence and retribution has consistently been used to shut down conversations and slow the progress of anti-racist movements, including but not limited to the abolishionist movement.
Fear
Fear, even when it’s overblown or unwarranted, has been a powerful component of racism because it is both contagious and anti-logical.
Fear literally short-circuits our brains. Normally, neutral information takes a long, leisurely route through our prefrontal cortex, where it is evaluated. Logical, abstract, moral, and creative thinking all happen here. Fear however, causes our brains to turn straight to our emotional, instinctive center: the amygdala. Here we process information hastily, making reactive and emotional decisions usually falling prey to extreme ‘all or nothing’ or, pardon the pun ‘black and white’ thinking.
We have to actively and consciously engage the analytical parts of our brain if fear of any kind has been engaged.
This is why it is so important to be proactively ‘anti-racist’, rather than passively assuming that just being ‘not racist’ is enough. We have to be critical of the fear we’ve been taught and actively examine the claims and assumptions we have been making as white people in Barbados…
Conflating demands for equality with demands for revenge is a racist fallacy that has been used to shut down conversations and movements for equality in society for centuries.
Even if Barbadians took action and decided to forcibly remove a bronze statue of Nelson for example, it does not logically follow that you as a person would be next.
This is a slippery slope fallacy rooted in fear driven by racist concepts.
Let’s be logical:
Why would we ignore the plentiful examples of relatively peaceful constructive progress across modern societies?
While there are of course, examples of violent movements that exist and can be construed as ominous warnings (white people’s own behaviour not least among these examples), what makes us think that Barbadians are likely to follow anything resembling that path when we have countless examples of non-violent, or minimally violent, diplomatic, socially conscience movements for equality and justice by a majority of the Black population historically and internationally?
Who exactly are you talking about?
When you fear this imagined violence or revenge against white people in Barbados, do you really believe many of your Black friends and relatives would support it? Would any at all? If not, perhaps you need to examine why you believe that they are the exception and that the rest of Barbados is particularly violent or amoral?
Does it make sense?
If, as most white Bajan’s tend to claim, racism today isn’t really a big problem, why would Black people look to exact revenge on people who weren’t even alive during the time of slavery? Are they particularly violent, illogical or amoral ?
Would the mere discussion and reckoning of our past and current issues so easily launch our society into such a drastic reaction?
Conversely, if the effects of racism currently are actually so bad that it warrants a violent reaction from Barbadians, then why aren’t you doing your part to actively dismantle it before it gets to that point rather seeking to quiet discussions and let the issues continue and simmer in society like a pressure pot?
As white Bajans we can’t allow the fear of an unfounded hypothetical future cause us to ignore the realities of our present society and try to silence discussions seeking to fully recognize and reckon with the repercussions of our collective past.
While it is tempting to try to simply ‘not see colour’ or just focus on positivity, when there are underlying issues hurting people in our society positive thinking alone will not lead to tangible positive progress.
Racist ideologies are destructive and ultimately harm all of us. We must do our best to honestly examine our assumptions and evaluate the beliefs that underpin our attitudes and behaviors if we are to work together towards a better future for everyone in Barbados.
“I want to talk to all my Black friends and family about this now!”
Be aware that carrying multi generations of racism is exhausting and can take its toll on physical and mental health. Do not expect the emotional labour of darker skinned people in explaining all of their experiences on all of these matters. But do listen when they speak up, and amplify with their permission.
“I don’t like the tone of these conversations, some people sound so angry / extreme and it discredits the whole conversation.”
The more we learn about injustice, the most passionate we become. People who seem extreme or angry, sound negative, use cuss words, propose extreme measures which make us uncomfortable — these are people who either live these injustices daily, have people close to them who have experienced these injustices, or have been learning about injustices for a long time.
If you’re just coming around to some of the racism going on, then you may not have the same emotions yet. Or you may never reach the same level.
Either way, it’s not our job to “tone police” — telling people who experience racism how to react to and talk about racism. In conversations of privilege and injustice, someone will always feel uncomfortable and defensive. It’s not for the person experiencing the injustices to take on additional work to make their experiences and emotions more palatable. You will never be able to satisfy everybody!
It’s our job to listen to people, the message they are saying, even if what they say and how they are saying it does not feel polite. Even if it makes us feel defensive, hurt, or very uncomfortable. In fact, “politeness” is often seen in our society as more important to uphold, than to work through the many injustices that occur. This is a mistake that we must work through as a society.
We know, we know…this goes against what Granny, Uncle, and our Headmistress all taught us at school. We don’t mean manners never matter, but this is one of the cases of how the world is evolving to recognize and not put extra burdens on people.
If you are still having a hard time thinking about this, there is a separate article with a good example. Here’s the first bit, you can read the rest here:
“Let’s say you have a broken foot. No need to get into how it broke, it’s just broken. And let’s say you have to walk around a bit in order to get to work, buy groceries…you know, just live your life. But you’re doing it with a broken foot, and that’s pretty frustrating and painful. Now, let’s say your broken foot has been stepped on two times today. Ouch, right? That sure will exacerbate things.
So you’re walking around with the broken foot that’s been stepped on, and you hop on a crowded bus to get home, which results in your foot being stepped on YET AGAIN. Since the person stepping on your foot doesn’t notice, you say, “Hey, you’re stepping on my foot, and it’s broken!” Because this is the third time today, you tear up a little. You’re in pain, right?” Continued.
Tone policing is the equivalent of telling this person “It’s not a big deal! Stop crying. There’s no need to shout at me…I didn’t mean to! Someone just stepped on my foot and I didn’t make a big deal out of it… etc”
We must realize that any discussions about race, privilege and inequalities are always likely to make us feel some degree of discomfort as white people. We cannot demand that the conversation only happen in terms that make us feel comfortable because that is essentially asking that these conversations not happen at all. There is no way to make everyone feel comfortable hearing Black people identify the ways in which racism has hurt them and our role in it whether intentionally or unintentionally.
The below cartoon goes into this in more detail, transcript available at the link for visually impaired:
Continue this full illustrated explanation of tone policing by Robot Hugs here with transcript.
“Black people sold others into slavery; other cultures enslaved people throughout history”
“Forced labor was not uncommon — Africans and Europeans had been trading goods and people across the Mediterranean for centuries — but enslavement had not been based on race. The trans-Atlantic slave trade, which began as early as the 15th century, introduced a system of slavery that was commercialized, racialized and inherited. Enslaved people were seen not as people at all but as commodities to be bought, sold and exploited.” — NYT
In many ways the Trans-Atlantic trade was a new type of Slavery which brought with it the invention of Racist ideologies which have visible, very negative impacts for Black people, whether at home or abroad, to this very day.
New racial categories and racist theories of White Supremacy were created along with this new slavery, the impact and scope of which far exceeded that of any slavery system before or since.
Various forms of slavery, servitude, or coerced human labor existed throughout the world before the development of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the sixteenth century. As historian David Eltis explains, “almost all peoples have been both slaves and slaveholders at some point in their histories.” Still, earlier coerced labor systems in the Atlantic World generally differed, in terms of scale, legal status, and racial definitions, from the trans-Atlantic chattel slavery system that developed and shaped New World societies from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. — Slavery before the Trans-Atlantic Trade
But before we dive into this further, let’s consider a VERY important question.
Why are you even bringing this up?
Part of being Anti-Racist to examine the underlying motivation and purpose of many seemingly harmless sentiments.
Does the involvement of Africans, or the pre-existence of other forced-labor change the impact of racism today?
Does the involvement of some Black people lessen the atrocity of slavery in anyway?
Does it make you feel less ‘white guilt’? (PS. Anti-racism is not about harbouring personal guilt)
Are you trying to minimize the impact of slavery by believing ‘everyone else’ was doing it too?
This seems to be an attempt to shift the burden of the slave trade onto the victims of that very trade.
In many ways this sentiment is used a red herring during conversations about slavery and racism. The involvement of Africans at some level in the system does not change:
- the overall impact of slavery on the enslaved or their descendants
- the impact of the racialized ideologies that were invented to support this new Slavery
- the overall benefits that White people as a group gained at the time
- the benefits white people have inherited currently whether directly or indirectly through white privilege and sustained racist systems and ideas
But, if you insist, here is a bit more to consider:
-The demand for the enslavement of people in the Trans-Atlantic was created and driven by Europeans. Not Africans. The massive disparities that exist today would not have existed without the involvement of our Europeans ancestors.
-The very presence of Europeans in Africa changed the dynamic of African trade and economies. Firearms became essential to defending communities from Europeans with firearms. And the only way to obtain firearms was by participating in the slave trade. There is even a case of the King of Dahomey, near Benin today, who requested that Europeans set up an arms manufacturing place so that Africans could make their own arms and learn, but the request was denied.
-At the end of the day, even if a handful of the descendants of Black people from Africa currently have a bit of wealth passed down from an ancestor who sold people for enslavement….ALL white people today experience benefits from enslavement, as has been discussed in this and many articles regarding white privilege. It is not a level playing field or useful comparison. The involvement of Africans in this chapter of slavery is an issue for THEM to reflect on and reconcile for themselves. It is NOT our place to constantly point to it as a way to distract from the work we need to do for ourselves in dismantling our inherited legacies of racism and privilege.
Please, let’s stop bringing this up and detracting from the real conversations and work at hand!
“Some Black people were treated well under slavery”
Statements such as this gloss over the abhorrent realities of slavery and reinforce intentional myths created to support slavery and make white people at the time and every generation since them feel better about it.
Before even reaching the ‘New World’ more than 1.5 million enslaved African people died on board ships during their trans-Atlantic voyage in conditions so utterly deplorable that to call them inhumane is an understatement. Those that did survive, endured months in conditions of squalor and indescribable horror. Separated from their home, loved ones and family they were then sold as property across the Caribbean and Americas. Children typically comprised 26 percent or more of a slave ship’s human ‘cargo’.
Even if some of the 12 million people who survived this traumatic journey and their descendants who were born into slavery for generations, were given ‘preferential treatment’ by receiving less violence and a bit more sugar or rum, it does not begin to minimize the crime of the entire Slave System, or qualify as remotely fair and just treatment for anyone.
The truth is, you would not wish for yourself or anyone you love, the life of even the best treated enslaved person. Because no matter what, they were robbed of the very basic fact of their humanity and freedom.
Sanitized versions of what slavery was like have been intentionally used to make white people feel better about exploiting Black labour, while also reinforcing the narrative that Slavery was actually ‘good for Black people’ because they needed the ‘paternalistic’ oversight of white people. These are dangerous racist myths that we need to recognize.
“In the period immediately before and just following the Civil War, benign images in paintings and illustrations presented the old plantation as a kind of orderly agrarian paradise where happy, childlike slaves were cared for by their beneficent masters. Pop-culture stereotypes such as the mammy, the coon, the Sambo and the Tom emerged and persisted well into the 20th century, permeating everything from advertising — think Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben — to movies to home décor items like pitchers, salt-and-pepper shakers and lawn ornaments. They presented blacks as cheerful, subservient “darkies” with bug eyes and big lips and, often, with a watermelon never too far off. Popular paternalistic depictions such as that of “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind showed slaves as faithfully devoted to their masters and helplessly dependent. The consistent message: Blacks were better off under white people’s oversight.” — History.com
While there were indeed a range of living conditions and treatment of enslaved people across the generations that endured this system, it is incredibly important that we recognize the minimizing intention statements of this kind have served since the beginning of slavery. It’s time we recognize the racist origins of these lines of thinking.
Please do some reflection and consider how insensitive and harmful statements like this are.
“I’m not a fan of Blackout Tuesday. What does it accomplish?”
Blackout Tuesday encourages people to spend money at Black-owned businesses.
If there are no racial economic differences in Barbados, it should be easy to spend one day supporting only Black-owned business. If not, then it’s a good opportunity for everyone.
Consider if a group proposed a day to support businesses owned by individuals with disabilities
Would you feel threatened or outraged? Probably not right?
Would it be easier for you to see it for what is it is? A day to support businesses who have had more hurdles in the way of their success, and a chance to discuss and amend these barriers as a society. A day to encourage them, a day for them to improve and become more competitive in the market. A day for other businesses to stop and consider the ways they need to improve THEIR accessibility and services for those with disabilities.
Would it be construed to be an attack on able-bodied business owners? Prejudicial or hate-filled?
Unlikely.
It’s worth seriously considering why a proposed ‘black-out’ day to support Black businesses creates such a panicked response from some people in Barbados.
What are we hearing?
Maybe some people see “‘spend your money with Black businesses to fight racial injustice and economic disparity” and what they choose to HEAR is “they’re asking people to never spend money with me again because my skin is white!”
White people, by default or habit, choose to interpret it as an attack against them for something they cannot control (their skin tone) and then immediately jump to accusations of ‘racism’ (fully misunderstanding and misapplying the implications of that term) and then go on to accuse the entire movement of hatred, totally ignoring the real purpose and intention of the movement or the context leading us to here.
It’s understandable to feel threatened if you are ever worried about your livelihood. At less than 3% of the population, if every Black Barbadian decided to never again spend another cent with white Barbadians would be in trouble. We have children to feed, too.
But is that what’s actually being said?
And no, not those idle, occasional comments online or in person that echo and validate all of your fears.
You can’t jump straight to the few comments that support your fears and then characterize an entire conversation and movement based on that. You don’t expect Black Bajan to pick the one comment by that crazy cousin of yours who’s blatantly racist and freely uses the n-word to characterize yourself or the entire population of White Barbadians, so don’t turn around and do the same thing.
Let’s return to that hypothetical Disability-business day.
It doesn’t panic you.
It’s not about able-bodiedness being bad, and disabilities being good. Or vice versa. It’s about developing more equal access and opportunities.
It’s not about punishing people for being able-bodied and successful. It’s about making sure the path to success is not blocked for those who are not.
It’s not about punishing you for being white. It’s about making sure the path to success is not
blocked for those who are not.
If you run a business in Barbados and you are white — it’s not a time to feel panicked. It’s a time to:
- Reflect on how you run your businesses and to examine whether there are any biases affecting the ways you operate.
- Question why it’s assumed that the white guy in the meeting is the manager.
- Examine who you hire and why and whether you are treating all your employees fairly and equitably.
- Examine the culture within your business and see if you have been prioritizing white customers over Black customers, white employees over Black employees.
- Examine your suppliers and partners — have you always worked with your cousin’s friend, even though he tends to be late with orders and a pain to work with? Maybe consider switching to a Black-owned supplier with a solid track record. Are you that cousin’s friend? Then it’s an opportunity to improve your business practices for everyone.
If a movement like this makes you uncomfortable — let that discomfort be a motivator to reflect on yourself and the way you operate, not to project mythical vengeance from others.
An excellent opportunity to examine and go further
Furthermore, a day where we examine the ways we take part in capitalism is important because capitalism is an incredibly powerful system, that we very seldom choose to consciously examine.
Un-examined and un-challenged capitalism is the historical heartbeat of systemic racism.
Why not go further? A lot of businesses and therefore people are hurting because of COVD-19 and its impact on tourism and other industries. So when we are able to do business, let’s make sure every penny we spend counts. Think of how so many people suddenly started supporting local farmers instead of just the supermarkets. Everyone benefits from that. How can we take this further?
It should be easy
Returning to the point earlier on, if white Bajans are less than 3% of the population, and if there is no such thing as racial economic disparity in Barbados then it should be incredibly easy to go one day supporting Black Businesses. If there’s no disparity surely 94% of the businesses that you currently use are Black? Which means you ALREADY spend 94% of your weekly spend with Black businesses?
….But, no… right?
So listen… it doesn’t make someone a bad person to realize that when we think about where we spend our money in an average week, a big portion goes go to white owned businesses. It wasn’t a conscience choice, it’s not even bad in and of itself to give white businesses money.
BUT if there is a disparity we should listen and notice. We should do our part to ask why, how did we get here, what is keeping us here, what conscious and unconscious decisions lead to business success for one racial demographic and not another?
If there IS no disparity — then, caw blen, NO WORRIES! This shopping day will affect literally NOTHING.
If there IS a disparity, it does mean you have a responsibility to Barbadian society to help pave an equitable path forward for all segments of Barbadians.
Days focused on supporting certain businesses are used around the world and are an opportunity, not a threat
These days generate conversation — already Blackout Tuesday has done this. There was even a news segment in Trinidad talking about the day in Barbados!!
It gives a chance to highlight businesses people love and want to support more.
Look around the world at other places doing these types of days — it doesn’t mean all the other businesses were cut down, forced into the streets penniless. It just spreads the love.
And if you’re already doing your part then you have nothing to worry about, don’t get sucked into the reflexive white defensiveness that was taught to our ancestors 400 years ago to maintain the status quo for those who were exploiting others in the name of capitalism.
Continue to reflect and examine, because there’s always room for improvement for ALL of us in forging a better Barbados. You work hard, but other people work hard too — and their hard work isn’t worth any less than yours or mine as a white person. And that’s what this conversation is about.
There are going to be more Blackout days, maybe weeks and more, coming up — brace yourself and your business for some reflection. People remember how you treat them, customers, partners, and employees. A perfect time to improve yourself and your business, and support others who could use a leg up.
#BajanBlackOut on social media often has information on the latest Blackout news.
“Changing all of these brand names is foolishness”
Whether internationally (Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s) or locally (Plantation Rum, Ecaf Spices), many brands are getting a rehaul. Is it taking it a bit too far?
De ting: rebranding isn’t going to solve structural racism.
But similar to things like the Nelson statue, why should we encourage making money off of symbols that come from the hardships of enslaved people? Why should they be anywhere in our lexicon, other than museums, textbooks, and nuanced verbal history?
For a local example, Plantation Rum will rename. Some plantations have been repurposed by the descendants of those enslaved there. Others haven’t. Maybe you personally don’t have any negative feelings associated with plantations, you’ve probably been to some fetes or weddings or even lived on or by an old plantation house.
Would you find it upsetting if someone sold “Concentration Camp Rum”?
The sting may be particularly bad if you are of Jewish faith or ancestry, but I think most of us would agree that seems chilling and disrespectful at best.
While we can’t make direct comparisons as both are horrifying in their own ways, if we consider the millions of deaths and the mistreatment, imprisonment, starvation, and abuse of people in both of these locations on such massive and horrific scales….hopefully neither of them sits well with any of us.
Just because plantations are sprinkled across our island and vocabulary, and have been normalized in our culture, doesn’t mean we should glorify and profit from them, unless it is solely based on education and moving forward to a better way.
Aren’t Uncle Ben and Aunty J harmless? Well, they were designed to comfort white people…
There are sooo many articles about where imagery such as Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben’s came from, here’s one of the first results if you type into google, an article that doesn’t go too in depth but shares some aspects of the history via a mainstream US news source.
These may feel like small tings but they all add up, why wouldn’t we take the steps to change them if we can?
But spending too much time arguing over this is easy — better to spend time on the bigger fish we fryin up.
Okay, what else should I do?
In no particular order:
1. Start these conversations wherever possible.
Remember, it is a good thing to push past your comfort zone. This work cannot be done without some discomfort. You will survive!
2. Challenge.
Don’t let racist words or actions go unchecked, in yourself and others, online or offline.
3. Question what you see.
Question how / why your social and business peers look and act as they do. If, living in a country less than 3% white, the majority of your peers and the businesses you support are white, it’s time to deconstruct that. Start intentionally supporting Black businesses. A new website, Blackflip.co, has started a directory.
4. Listen.
Listen to and help implement ideas from experts in this area. For example:
- Dr. Rudolph Alleyne in the 14 June 2020 Barbados Advocate listed 10 ideas battling out racism at a systemic level, such as “Full review and amendment to all laws that in anyway discrimination, or promote racists of only Eurocentric views and ideals” and “Establish a central office that would have the full power to address issues and implement penalties for any action overt or covert related to racism or discrimination”.
- David Denny, in 14 June 2020 Barbados Nation article Not Enough by Tre Graves suggested a simple symbolic action, removing the “Royal” from the Royal Barbados Police Force, to emphasize its role is to serve the people of Barbados and not European interests.
5. If you own or are in a leadership position in a business
Please read this section with suggestions which arose based around Black Out Tuesday.
6. Read the below resources
Further Reading & Resources
Barbadian Context:
- Anti-Blackness is Alive and Well in Barbados
by Sharon Hurley Hall, including an analysis of the non-apology from a local racist whose racism went viral. Sharon has a wealth of articles, along with a newsletter. - Personal accounts of Racism in Barbados
by Elizabeth Aimes, winner of Miss Barbados World. - Black Business in Barbados — an experience behind the scenes
- Bajans: We need actions, not indifference on Racism
- Get Uncomfortable: A Challenge to Bajan white people to self-examine
by Risée Chaderton-Charles - How the Barbados Slave Codes introduced the concepts of “Whiteness” and “Blackness” to the world
by Emma Dabiri - Reflections on race and whiteness from the context of Barbados
by Annalee Davis - Lord Nelson and slavery: Nelson’s dark side
- “Be Careful!” — Veiled threats and reflections on Shame
by Stacey Alvarez - Lord Nelson, White Privilege & Historical Nostalgia
by Tiffany Taylor - Black Lives Matter FAQ and its relevance to Barbados
by Bazodee Magazine - Sweet Negotiations: Sugar, Slavery, and Plantation Agriculture in Early Barbados — book Russell R. Menard
Caribbean context:
- Contesting “White Slavery” in the Caribbean
A Research Article
Wider context:
There are SO MANY good resources for this category
- Addressing White Privilege a Visual flow-chart
- Do the Work – a 30 day course by Rachel Elizabeth Cargle
- What white people can do next by Emma Dabiri
- Becoming anti-racist Diagram, shared by Andrew M. Ibrahim MD, MSc
- Racial Injustice has Benefited Me — A Confession
- Interrupting Racism: A Technique, strategies for responding to interpersonal racist remarks as well as how to take responsibility when confronted
from Carolyn Gage’s workshop “Interrupting Racism” - Podcast interview with Heather McGhee on the Economic Impact of Racism
- Podcast interview with Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to be Anti-Racist
- A detailed list of Anti-Racism Resources
(open an incognito window if you’ve run out of free Medium articles)
Thank you to everyone who contributed time and energy to review and improve or be featured in this work. Let’s make Barbados the best it can be.
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