caribny posted:Django posted:caribny posted:Django with due respect to you Indians were treated as inferiors during the Burnham era. The only problem that I have with the Indo KKK on this topic is that blacks were treated as badly under the Jagdeo/Ramotar regime. While Cheddi had his Indian bias at least he wasn't as oppressive towards blacks as the brutes who followed him, starting with his wife.
Thanks Carib,fair response.
The poor suffered,the rich was respected,I hang around with quite a few.
This is how the Burnham era was.
A small African/mixed elite shoe horned themselves into dominance through the full state control of the economy. An even smaller Indian business/professional elite benefited by forming alliances with this group. They bribed them and/or were used as tokens so that the base racism of the Burnham era could be disguised.
The Burnham group chased out those who wanted to be independent, regardless of race, or in the case of Rodney, simply killed them. Often the Indian soup lickers screamed support, yes this for their survival. I can think of a certain Indian female who was a GNS officer. She loved black men, scorned Indian men, and was a very belligerent Burnham bully. A very loyal soldier of her black massas.
An African grass roots was used to "legitimize" this group by giving them some notion of popular support, and to be the foot soldiers. A few of these benefitted being ardent PNC party card carriers and got jobs that they usually weren't qualified for. The YSM, and certain others who got favors. Yes that KSI business of refusing to sell to certain people is true as are complaints that those business people who didn't join the Burnham train were punished. The Kirpalanis as I recall had no problems.
The rest of the African grass roots population was fooled into Animal Farm type devotion of Burnham. Initially their support was bought through patronage, reducing them to total dependence on the state for employment, and undermining any independence that they had.
The sad part was that the high standards of education of the African was undermined, as was their strong dominance of the skilled trades. The old reputation of the Afro Guyanese as disciplined died. Why work when a lazy man office job bullying people was available. And they bullied all, not just Indians. Their biggest ire in fact was directed to those blacks who refused to join the Burnham train and who continued to value education, hard work, personal responsibility and independence.
In fact during the Burnham era there was a complete rewriting of the history of Afro Guyanese. We were told that before Burnham we were a bunch of under achieving losers, so that all that we have must be credited to him. So the role of the black middle class in developing pre independent Guyana was wiped out. Burnham himself came from that class of productive Afro Guyanese so he cannot claim ignorance.
The Africans were reduced to extreme poverty once the gravy train ended. Lacking an economic base, and remaining dependent on the state, losing their edge in education and the trades, their poverty continued under the PPP which unleashed a torrent of racist oppression towards them, except of course for the PPP's own brand of ethnic tokenism.
Lacking any real benefit from the PNC era Burnham used the black grass roots much as Trump uses his white working class. He encouraged their basest racist instincts against Indians, so yes I can well believe that bullying against Indians (and Amerindians) occurred.
The Indian grass roots had nothing to offer the PNC elites. Their instinct to be clannish (ethnically exclusive) was used by Burnham to play on African insecurities of what Indian rule would bring to them. So even as blacks began to turn against Burnham they didn't rebel because they feared "coolie people rule". In retrospect we have seen that Indian rule did exclude blacks, a "mistake" that the PPP made.
So yes Indian grass roots were marginalized and bullied by the Burnham goons. Just as Trump makes hungry whites feel that they are hungry, but they are better than Muslims, blacks and non white foreigners, so too did he make grass roots blacks feel better than Indians/Amerindians, and perfectly "justified" in bullying them.
The Indo KKK should note that I will condemn black racism as I see it. I have done so on MANY occasions and in fact my first post on this site made reference to this.
They ought to do the same when Indian racism occurs rather than either whining "as far as I know", or blatantly denying that this occurs and that only black racism is pertinent. Instead they scream that those who confront Indian racism hate Indians, and they level the nastiest charges against those Indians who have the integrity to condemn racism coming from Indians as they can be expected to confront black racism.
In fact my analysis of the Jagdeo era will be the same except that the position of the dominant races is reversed, but GTAngler and company will NEVER admit this!
An excellent post by carib. I am sure EVERYONE is in agreement.