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"Until the philosophy,
Which hold one race superior and another,
Inferior,
Is finally,
And permanently,
Discredited,
And abandoned,
Everywhere is war,
Me say war,"

~Bob Marley. Lyrics to "War". Published to Youtube, 29 June 2011.

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A New and Needed Discussion about the Caribbean Sparked by Black Lives Matter

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A New and Needed Discussion about the Caribbean Sparked by Black Lives Matter

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The Caribbean can be described as a ‘melting pot’ due to the presence of multiple races and ethnic groups coexisting and amalgamating in its region. This ‘melting pot’ Caribbean was a result of its history. A dark history of slavery and indentured servitude by colonial powers. These colonial powers ruled with an oppressive hand of racism.

Social structures were formed around these racial ideals. Blacks and people of colour were the lowest social standing and categorised as chattel slaves, people not worthy of freedom and human rights, and who were inferior to whites who were superior, occupied the highest social standing and categorised as masters. When slavery was abolished, these colonial powers no longer ruled and eventually abandoned the Caribbean. The long oppressed Kalinagos, Africans, East Indians, Chinese etc. who were voluntarily or forcible brought to the Caribbean were now independent and developed their own societies and social structures, forming what is known as the ‘melting pot’ Caribbean today. However, the colonial powers left their imprint of racial ideologies which had infected Caribbean history and continues to infect its current reality.

In response of racial tragedies against the black community that have been occurring in the United States, also a country haunted by racism and slavery in its history and current reality, a movement called the Black Lives Matter movement has gained significant recognition and has now grown internationally. The Black Lives Matter movement stands up for the global black community. Its mission is freedom and justice of Black people by dismantling systemic racism and eradicating white supremacy. The movement has received support from many countries in South America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.
So what does the Black Lives Matter movement mean for the Caribbean? Does the Black Lives Matter movement stand up for and help Caribbean society? How is racism prevalent in this modern Caribbean if there is no longer a white versus black/ people of colour factor? How can the black community of the Caribbean who was seen as the minority group who were all oppressed be racist or prejudiced? Is there still systematic racism in the Caribbean?

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About Blacks Lives Matter: The Power of a Hashtag 

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About Blacks Lives Matter: The Power of a Hashtag 

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Blacks Lives Matter Foundation, Inc. started off as a single hashtag, ‘#BlackLivesMatter’, on Twitter in 2013 by black activists, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, in response to George Zimmerman being cleared of murdering Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager, in Sanford, Florida, United States. These three radical Black organisers ignited the creation of a Black-centered political movement and will and developed the hashtag into a political project which is now a member-led network of more than 40 chapters.

The initiative of Black Lives Matter is to continue the Civil Rights Movement that occurred in 1946 to 1968 in the United States. The Civil Rights Movement strived to obtain and secure full political, social and economic rights for African Americans in the United States. The fight for equality and improvement of the lives of African Americans is present throughout American history. Even after the Thirteenth Amendment was put into the US Constitution and thus outlawed slavery in 1865, and then the following of the Fourteen and Fifteenth Amendments which granted a legal gains for the political equality of American Americans, issues of racism were still rampant in the South. Thus came the birth radical racial discrimination against African Americans called Jim Crow segregation. Due to this, southern African Americans continued to exist under this racism-driven social structure where whites were superior to blacks. African Americans continued to be oppressed and lived in poverty, inequality and were still denied their freedom and human rights by white supremacists. The endeavour of these Civil Rights Movements resulted in many notable victories for the growth of black power in America, but not all the fights for black rights were won.

To this present day in the United States, systematic racism and white supremacy is very present and the Black Lives Matter movement has carried on the torch ignited by the Civil Rights Movements. Black Lives Matter has once again created a united front for the black community. It demands that black people should have the social, economic and political power to thrive. The movement works towards the freedom and justice for the black community, who have far too long been disadvantaged, oppressed and systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is the new symbol which represents an affirmation of black folk’s humanity.

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Black Lives Matter explained: The history of a movement

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So What Does Black Lives Matter Mean For The Caribbean?

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So What Does Black Lives Matter Mean For The Caribbean?

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The uprisings and protests by Black Lives Matter has summoned much needed discussions about class and race relations in the United States and across the world. However, it hasn’t gained its recognition in the Caribbean as much as it should as some argue that the initiative of Black Lives Matter can’t be implemented into Caribbean context.

The reason these Black Lives Matter protests and uprising have spread throughout the world is because people around the world are also witnesses and/or have experienced these acts of racial and economic injustices, police violence and social and racial inequalities. These shared experiences all stem from the history of colonisation and dehumanisation of people of colour. The global black community and its allies are all outraged at these ongoing forms of oppression.

Futhermore, this was the motive of many notable Caribbean entities such as Stockely Carmicheal, a Trinidadian civil rights leader, Sylvia Wynters, a Jamaican writer and cultural theorist, Rhoda Reddock, a Trinidadian educator and social activist, Tim Hector, a leftist Antiguan political leader, Aimé Césaire, an Afro-Caribbean politician and French poet from Martinique, and many more. In their works they demonstrated how colonialism, historical and philosophical constructions of race and humanism were connected to gender, class and colour. These Caribbean entities fought for Black liberation as it is an ongoing struggle even in the Caribbean. They had significant roles in Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, Pan-Africanism and provided postcolonial and decolonial theories. From their works one can understand the significance of the movements to the Caribbean history and its current reality.

The actions of these Caribbean entities and the eruptions of these protests has uncovered these shared experiences around the world and the shared feelings of outrage and empathy. It brings to light that the systems in the Caribbean are in some ways still broken, classist and racist and these are the pleads of change.
The clip linked below is from the film '70: Remembering a Revolution'. It is a documentary about the events which occurred in Trinidad in the late 1960s. In the film, Alex de Verteuil and Elizabeth Topp recall the story of Trinidad's revolution and a West Indian Black Power Movement through a series of interviews with the men and women who led, participated in, and opposed it. The documentary is considered a significant contribution to the post-colonial Caribbean as it shows key moments in Caribbean radical history and shows the emergence of Black Power movements in the West Indies.

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'70: Remembering a Revolution - Clips from the Film

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Black Lives Matter strongly advocates against blatant police brutality towards the black community. In the US, black people are being unjustly killed and imprisoned due to a racist system. In the Caribbean, countries like Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad have these tragedies occurring far too often as well. However, the killings occurring in the Caribbean are not categorised as a race issue as the police force is predominantly Black and thus does not fall under the initiative of Black Lives Matter.

The argument is that because the police officers are Black and they kill Black people, they can not titled as racist. However, the actual issue is that many ofthese police killings are not right in the view of law. The police should be titled as murders and charged and the victims should receive justice. Unfortunately that isn’t the case and the victims and their families are denied their rights, which fully falls under the initiative of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Again looking at our colonial history, the police system was formed from the intentions of white colonial powers to control and punish local colonised populations. In the US, the term ‘Law and Order’ is not now known by many as negative. In the late 1960s, the term was created by President Nixon. It was a powerful political theme in his campaign for presidency in the US. ‘Law and Order’ was a coded message promising the repression of the black community. This theme can be seen in the Caribbean system as well.

In Jamaica and Trinidad, protests have erupted against the blatant police violence and the police murders that many times go unreported and the victims don't receive justice. The protests also drew attention to the fact that these crimes particularly occur way too often upon the poor and working class black communities whom are under constant surveillance and scrutiny.

Hence, the race of the police officers is not the issue, but the racial objective and class structure which the police system was founded on still lingers. Although non-black people of colour do experience police violence, it it black people who go through the full brunt of police brutality. Black people are often seen as a threat or fall under suspicion and killed and because black lives are valued less, and thus the police murders are not held accountable.

Ironically, the protests in the US and Trinidad against police violence was handled with excessive force from the police even thought they were peaceful protests. The police escalated the peaceful protest by beating, attacking protestors with shots and the use of pepper spray.

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Police Maintain Law And Order In Capital City

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The Different Kind of Racism in the Caribbean

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The Different Kind of Racism in the Caribbean

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Racism is what fuelled all these Black Power movements such as Black Lives Matter. It was the main theme through our history. Traditionally, racism is understood as a Black-White dynamic and thus is the argument for why it is not as relevant in the Caribbean. How can groups that were oppressed together still belittle each other? Because racism is a complex manifestation of human behaviour, and thus can take many forms.

Firstly, ethnocentrism is the tendency to view ones culture as superior from other cultures and plays a key role in racism. For example, the country of Trinidad and Tobago whose citizens are almost half Black, half East Indian and Chinese, Syrians and even Whites make up the minority. There is existing prejudice and racism between them. The main players are no longer Whites and Blacks, but East Indians and Blacks. The dynamic of this racism isn’t skin colour, but it is now a dynamic of ethnicity and culture.

Secondly, institutional or systemic racism is observed in politics, practices and procedures of many institutions in government. Also again in Trinidad and Tobago, the main political parties are the People’s National Movement (PNM), seen as the party which represents Black people, and the United National Congress (UNC), seen as the party which represents East Indian people.

Thirdly, another form is crypto-racism means secret or hidden racism. This can be in the country of Barbados. Its population is made up of mostly black Afro-Caribbean citizens. Although it is easy to oversee, there is a vast amount of racial discrimination and segregation observed in its urban and rural areas. In Barbados, it is made apparent that racism is an issue of the past and so the government and the general population ignore the on going discrimination in the country and so there is a lack of urgency to resolve any racial discrimination. It is seen as insignificant. As a result of the lack of urgency to resolve racial discrimination in the country and it be very much present, it engrained and disguised itself into their culture.

In conclusion, racism is manifestation of human behaviour. It changes in each society and is not just the traditional WHITE-BLACK dynamic when put into Caribbean context.