…in America
America insists it’s the “land of the free and the home of the brave”. But is it the land of the “non-racist”? The question has been placed centre square on the agenda of a lot of non-white Americans after the election of Donald Trump as president of the Republic. Some thought the question had been settled with their Civil War back in 1865 but then that was only to FREE the African slaves…wasn’t it? It certainly didn’t change how they were seen by their ‘fellow Americans’ who happened to be white. A hundred years later Blacks were waging pitched battles to sit on the same buses as whites!
This was made clear by the unsavoury – but revealing incident – that followed the elections over in Clay County, West Virginia. One Pamela Ramsey Taylor, who just happened to be white and worked at a government-funded organisation posted on her Facebook page, “It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a (sic) ape in heels.” The Mayor of Clay immediately responded to the post saying, “Just made my day Pam.”
Well!!! Following a petition for the two persons to be fired, the Mayor claimed, “My comment was not intended to be racist at all. I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House!” Imagine that! Your Eyewitness wonders which part of the Facebook post she parsed to hone in on just “change”! Anyhow, folks felt “justice” was done when the Mayor resigned and Taylor was “removed from her position”.
So had America now entered the “post-racial” age, for which the election of Barrack Obama – contrary to all the hosannas – had obviously proven to be a very, very false alarm? From the latest news emanating from Clay County in good, ole West Virginia it doesn’t seem so. We’re now told when Pamela Taylor was “removed” from her government-funded job, she’d really been “sent on leave”. So she’d only temporarily been “removed”!! Imagine that! So, will we soon be hearing that the good Mayor has “unresigned” and is back at the helm of Clay? Stay tuned!!
The sad truth, folks, is American racism’s literally part and parcel of the very constitution of the American Republic when African Americans were defined as being only “three quarters” of a white person. And that, we know from their subsequent history, was a very generous assessment! All that the election of Trump has done is to bring the racism that’s always been there to the surface.
Who’s Trump kidding when he “disassociates” himself from the support the Klu Klax clan threw his way?
…for PPP leadership
There’s a race of a totally different colour taking place over in Essequibo at the PPP Congress but at the time of this writing, only the first lap had been run. Yes, dear reader, your peripatetic Eyewitness wasn’t invited for an up close and personal view of the proceedings so he just has to interpret the tea leaves like your run of the mill soothsayers! So what’s the scoop gleaned from the dailies?
Well, as your Eyewitness predicted, this is Bharat Jagdeo’s Congress. Every report gave prominence and pride of place to his address. And even the rags had to admit he galvanised his massive audience – and it wasn’t all due to charisma. In substance, he was candid to concede that the party erred on several fronts over the last couple decades – corruption and arrogance were only two of the sins identified.
This was healthy. The rank and file know from their own bitter experience, about these two cancers that ate away at some of the core base of the party.
There’s no percentage in denying that.
…to the bottom
Meanwhile, back on the national front, the Government’s keeping on course in guiding Guyana to the bottom of the international barrel.
GPL’s blackouts are ensuring our manufacturing costs skyrocket.
