“The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps, is, because man is disunited with himself.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson.

For those who don’t know me, I had a uniquely educational childhood. The youngest daughter of a minister who moved his white family from the UK to the heart of rural Jamaica one year after Jamaica declared independence from the British, I grew up immersed in a culture distinctly different from (yet strongly influenced by) England, surrounded by human beings mostly descended from the continent of Africa. With a mix of other interesting ingredients.  Since I was looking out from blue eyes under blonde hair, I didn’t see the contrast in skin color, did not see anything other than children just like me, families just like my own.

Of course, to others looking on, it was obvious that I was different, and still associated with the old ruling class, the old colonizing oppressors.  But Jamaicans are on the whole a very welcoming and friendly people, and I was soon accepted as just another child.  One of my new friends (a boy, slightly older than me) decided that I needed special education.  (He hates being reminded of this story).  He would walk me home from school (I was not yet ten years old) informing me of the evils of the white man against the black man.  Jamaica (according to him and a book his brother had, which he could show me) used to be full of gold, silver and diamonds laying everywhere, mostly in river beds.  But the white man came and stole them all!   When you think about it, in a very simplistic way, and leaving out a lot of much nastier details, he described the act of Europeans as they ‘conquered’ the globe quite accurately!

So from early I was aware that there was great disparity in the world, and white men were mostly responsible for it.  I came of age in the era of Rastafarianism in Jamaica, and Black Power in the USA.  Again, most of the information about these movements was to be found outside of the classroom.  Books by Malcolm X, Angela Davis, and more were circulated.  Afros were worn with pride (my straight hair unfortunately would not join the trend!).  As Rastafarianism moved from being a fringe element in society to a source of academic discussion and African identity, Rasta turns of phrase became common place.  I was aware I was an informed observer, that I could participate while being very aware of the role of the white man in the oppression, enslavement, abuse and murder of people of color around the world. 

It was a time when a white person could be met with hostility when you moved in circles outside of your home town.  It had always been common, when our family drove through the countryside, to be greeted with yells of ‘White people!’ or ‘Whitey!’.  In the 70s that turned a little more resentful.  White people were now referred to as ‘Pork’.  I didn’t take it personally, aware that I represented centuries of mistreatment of people of African descent.  During the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, over twelve million Africans were transported to the Caribbean and the Americas, (two million did not survive the so-called middle passage, packed like sardines, in conditions not fit for animals).  For over three hundred years the practice continued, during which time those of African descent were chattel, worked without compensation, were used as ‘breeders’, labored from sunup to sundown to permit white landowners to amass wealth beyond our wildest dreams.  Mansions were built in far-flung lands like England, furnished with the finest mahogany.  Raw materials were shipped to the UK and provided work for the cotton industry, improved the lives of the working class (although they were also exploited) and again built generational wealth for the landowners.

Some of this information I only learned as I grew into adulthood, and married a Jamaican man who read everything he could about African civilization, about the European colonization of Africa, about Pan-Africanism.  It was much more recently that I learned about the compensation that was paid to the owners of enslaved Africans, after emancipation.  In England, the British Government committed to a 20 million pound compensation package to slave-owners for the loss of their ‘property’.  This represents over 16 billion pounds in today’s currency.  The last payments (from bonds) were paid out in 2015.  Astounding.

In the aftermath of the 2024 US election, much has been said as to the cause of the Democratic loss.  One of the culprits, apparently, is the latest bad word: ‘Woke’.  Supposedly to be ‘woke’ is somehow threatening to a large number of White people, and has somehow undermined their cultural values, their identity.  Programs which were designed to ensure fairness in the workplace and in the academic realm have also become code for dangerous disruption of the status quo.  ‘D.E.I.’ is now a curse word also, although what can be wrong with wanting a diverse, equitable and inclusive world is beyond me.  If being ‘woke’ is wrong, I don’t wanna be right (with apologies to Luther Ingram).

One of the absurdities (or even obscenities) that has been floated, is that White people who have been harmed by being exposed to D.E.I. programs should receive reparations.  So now, years after White owners of enslaved Africans were compensated (received reparations) for their loss of property, White people whose feelings were hurt by being exposed to information should also be compensated.  Meanwhile, those who are descended from the one group of people forcibly removed from their homeland; physically harmed; robbed of their culture and traditions; made to feel less than human; brutalized, raped and killed, discussion about reparations for them should not even be a part of the conversation.

I am aware that there are those who are uninformed about history, and feel that we should all move forward, but White People, please! How can we be so embarrassingly cruel, bigoted and racist?  How can we allow books to be banned, history to be whitewashed and free speech silenced, all in the interests of not hurting someone’s feelings?

This Friday morning I am trying to be more tolerant, aware that one of the accusations against the Democrats is that they ‘preach down’ to people, that by trying to make their language more inclusive they end up alienating large groups of (White) people.  I have seen the effectiveness of language in triggering segments of the population, whether it was ads that targeted those who fear that the trans community somehow threaten their existence.  I am hopeful that we will be able to find language that heals, instead of divides.  I am hopeful that artists will find ways to educate and enlighten, without hurting the sensitivities of the audience.  Let us commit to finding ways of coming together, of overcoming, of forging new communities that will transform our world.

Have a wonderful weekend, Family!

One Love!

Namaste.