“The Caribbean today is characterized by grave intolerance and mistrust at all levels”. This assignment serves to critically analyse this statement made. The geographic Caribbean comprises of the Greater and Lesser Antilles; the Lesser Antilles is further divided into the Windward and Leeward islands. They all consist of a mix of cultures and races as well as historical ties. The history of the Caribbean goes way back beyond the time of slavery, but everyone has an embedded recollection of the dreadful slavery era. The reason for this is the atrocious treatment our ancestors received from the colonials. A brief history of the Caribbean would be explained to illustrate why there is intolerance and mistrust at all levels. During slavery, the Whites prohibited all forms of religious acts from the African slaves and indentured labourers such as the East Indians, Chinese and Madeirans. They were disgusted by their skin colours, hair texture and physical appearance; in other words their race and furthermore their cultural practices. They even ranked male and females into different labour divisions where the males would attend to the skilled work and females would carry out the household work and parenting. This caused gender division since the females received a lower wage than the males with the stereotype that all females are less valued than the dominant males. This affected society to an extent but today gender equality and equity is prevalent within the Caribbean due to female activists and feminist rights. The planters misused the female slaves by raping and beating without any redress. Their ultimate aim was to brainwash and completely erase their sense of identity and to convert the ones ‘worth saving’ to their standards, values and norms. These factors stated contribute to the Caribbean intolerance of religion, race and political division since the Whites did not portray themselves as being religious or follow the Christian teachings of being fair and just. Race and religion is the Caribbean’s identity, to take these away major consequences would arise and therefore intolerance and mistrust. To the researcher’s view point, the Caribbean today is not totally characterized by grave intolerance and mistrust at all levels. The points to be critically analysed are religious intolerance and mistrust as well as racial intolerance and mistrust within the Caribbean.

 

Religious intolerance is the bigotry against another religion or lack thereof. This behaviour evolved in the colonial era when the Whites who were Catholics, Anglicans and Lutherans forced the Shouters of Trinidad and the Shakers of St. Vincent to terminate their Baptist practices. Their grudge against these religions grew. Not only had this incident manifested their grudge but many other instances where the planters not only raped the women slaves but the men as well. They did this for their own perverse pleasure hence the historic stigma of lesbianism and gayness. Today, the younger generation of the Caribbean is more open to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) society, but the vast population is still very intolerable of it since it goes against their religious practices. Evidence to prove this is provided in the Human Rights Watch article where a forty year old gay man from Bridgetown Barbados quoted “I have to leave to be me”. This interprets that he has to leave his own country due to the amount of discrimination directed at him for being gay. The article states that Eastern Caribbean countries enforced the LGBT discriminatory laws which made them a target for violence and abuse. “Eastern Caribbean: LGBT People Face Bias, Violence.” Human Rights Watch, 21 March, 2018. Accessed 28 November, 2019. www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/21/eastern-caribbean-lgbt-people-face-bias-violence.  Religious mistrust was a prevalent issue during the colonial era and still is to some extent today. This came about when the Spanish and British denied the slaves and later on, the indentured labourers of their own religious practices. It was either the Whites religion or none at all. The way these colonials treated the slaves and indentured labourers gave them the assumption that their religion was belittling, depriving and unjust hence back in that historical era the Whites religion was mistrusted.  There was also mistrust amongst the African slaves and the indentured labourers. After Emancipation in 1834, indentured labourers from East India such as Hindus and Islam, Chinese and Madeirans flooded the Islands for contracted work. The former slaves were angered by the fact that they received benefits such as payment and freedom after their contract, when the slaves did not. This led to cultural intolerance and mistrust among these divisions. After slavery, schools and churches were built on the Islands by missionaries. These schools and churches were based on the missionaries religion, be it Anglican, Presbyterian or Lutheran. Their goal was to get every former slave and indentured labourer to partake as to ‘raise their standards’ or make them ‘more civilized’. They wanted to erase these individuals sense of identity and reform them to theirs. Back then, religious intolerance and mistrust was extensive. As of today we can still see a lot of intolerance and mistrust against religions but it is greatly tolerated to some extent. Evidence to prove this is the involvement in various religious festivals. Today, the majority of the Caribbean celebrates Christmas which is a Christian based religion. This majority includes different ethnicities and cultures such as the Hindus, Muslims, Chinese, Africans and Creoles. This does not mean that they spiritually partake in the religion, but they enjoy the atmosphere that comes with it such as the food, decorations, music and friends. This is not only seen in the Christian faith but it is also seen with the Hindus for Divali. Most races dress up in Indian wear, attend to their prayers, partake in their Indian foods and sweets, light diyas for the festival of light and much more. Tolerance can be seen with many other religions in various ways. To conclude, the Caribbean today is not entirely characterized by grave intolerance and mistrust regarding religion.

 

 

 RACIAL INTOLERANCE AND MISTRUST

Racial intolerance is the hatred of another group with different ethnicities, values, norms and physical appearance. This also evolved in the colonial era where the Whites hated the people of colour such as the Africans and East Indians as well as their cultural practices. The Caribbean is characterized by racial intolerance and mistrust to some extent. During the historical era of slavery, Whites were superior and the people of colour were inferior. They referred to them as animals which lacked a soul. They despised their physique, hair texture, intense melanin and way of life. They were abused mentally, physically and verbally for their cultural practices; basically for everything they did. Nothing was ‘right’ for the colonials. Racial intolerance and mistrust also evolved when the miscegenation of the White planters and black slaves reproduced. The light skinned African offspring was treated with greater respect and fairness. They were also manumitted by their enslavers whereas the true Africans weren’t. They were allotted simpler work on the plantation and were favoured by their White father. This caused division within the race. The Africans grew jealous and intolerable of the mixed race. Not only were they intolerable of them, they also mistrust them. Reason being is that the white fathers of the light skinned Africans gained their offspring’s loyalty, so any ‘crime’ their own race committed was reported back to the enslavers. The African slaves felt betrayed hence the grudge. Racial intolerance was not only seen among the black Africans and the light Africans, it was seen with all of the other races that occupied the Caribbean. Today, racial intolerance is evident pertaining to our political leaders in Trinidad. Our political parties are divided into PNM which is based mainly on Africans and UNC which is based on Indians. During election period racial comments and discrimination are directed at one another. Even today the derogative slangs such as ‘coolie’ and ‘nigga’ are used when referring to Indians and Negros. These derogative words were used by the planters in the colonial era to oppress the enslaved. As of today, race is more accepted due to generations upon generations of mixing and creolization. Evidence to prove this point lies in the Caribbean Studies Association article stating that “the foundational and intrinsic diversity of the Caribbean has been understood by many of the inhabitants and thinkers of the region from an assumed racial democracy or a ‘melting pot’ point of view, where racist practices and ideologies are not recognized. CSAADMIN. “Racism in the Caribbean: Practice and Resistance”. Caribbean Studies Association, 10^th April, 2017. Accessed 28^th November 2019. www.caribbeanstudiesassociation.org/racism-in-the-caribbean-practice-and-resistance/. To conclude, the Caribbean today is not totally characterized by grave intolerance and mistrust regarding the topic race.

 

 

 CONCLUSION

Intolerance and mistrust in the Caribbean is absolutely prevalent today, devised by many factors in the colonial era such as racial and religious discrimination. There are religious, racial, political and many more intolerable and mistrusted points which were not discussed in this reflective paper. Colonial history moulded this adamant behaviour which is still illustrated in the Caribbean today, although they may not have the full extent of concern presently. Tolerance is not simply an attitude, but is an essential element for peace, unity and economic well-being of a nation or society wrote Abdur Rafay Usmani. “What can Tolerance Do for a Nation?” YourCommonwealth, 6th March, 2016. Accessed 29^th November, 2019. www.yourcommonwealth.org/social-development/human-rights/what-can-tolerance-do-for-a-nation/. All in all, the colonial era which comprised of slavery, Emancipation and Imperialism shaped the society back then and to some extent, today. The Caribbean held great hatred towards the Whites but that hatred is gradually dissipating. This is proven by the abundance of interracial marriages between African descents from the Caribbean and Whites from overseas. Not only are there interracial marriages between whites and blacks, but between the diversities of our culture. To conclude, some would agree that the Caribbean today is characterized by grave intolerance and mistrust while others would disagree fully. The researcher believes that the Caribbean today is characterized by intolerance and mistrust to some extent on the points discussed which were, religious and racial intolerance and mistrust. 

1.      “Eastern Caribbean: LGBT People Face Bias, Violence.” Human Rights Watch, 21 March, 2018. Accessed 28 November, 2019. www.hrw.org/news/2018/03/21/eastern-caribbean-lgbt-people-face-bias-violence.

 

2.      CSAADMIN. “Racism in the Caribbean: Practice and Resistance”. Caribbean Studies Association, 10^th April, 2017. Accessed 28^th November 2019. www.caribbeanstudiesassociation.org/racism-in-the-caribbean-practice-and-resistance/.

 

3.      “What can Tolerance Do for a Nation?” YourCommonwealth, 6th March, 2016. Accessed 29th November, 2019. www.yourcommonwealth.org/social-development/human-rights/what-can-tolerance-do-for-a-nation/.