Stormborn posted:
It is illegal to discriminate because there are rules. It is a benchmark for how we respond not as preventative. In time the rule produces the desired effect because that is what rules do. If residual racism remains it is inconsequential as long as it does not invade social and political decision .
Again, to be Guyanese is not to coform to some esoteric conception of some insipid homogeniety.
I wonder what world do you live in. Even as there is much talk of how white mass murderers are treated in comparison with INNOCENT black men, you still think that there is only residual racism in the USA.
Innocent black men are shot by the police, because they are black. Innocent black teenage girls are smashed against walls by the cops, because they are black.
Mr. Roof, who killed 9 black people, was fed at Burger King, because he said he was hungry. Other mass murderers, we are told, were troubled.
Yet it has been against the law to discriminate againts blacks for 50 years, and longer in states like NY.
The USA is still to reach the pont where blacks, and non white immigrants, are treated as if they are entitled to the same humanity as are white men. Until this society reaches this point, the law will provide scanty protection.
Every time I discuss Guyana I do NOT reduce it to homogeneity. YOU do, because you see being Guyanese as a birth certificate.
Not only is Guyana a multi racial, multi religious, and a multicultural society, but it becomes even more diverse when we account for the fact that being multi cultural describes not only the variety of cultures which exist in Guyana.
It also describes the fact that there is NO Guyanese person who doesnt exist on a cultural continuum.
1. There are Guyanese who can easily attend a mosque, a Hindu temple, and a church, and in fact actively participate in all three.
2. A Guyanese can go to a soca party one night, and next day shave off their hair and observe Hindu rites when a family member dies.
3. Another can engage in a vibrant KweKwe event one night, and get married in a very staid Anglican ceremony the next.
4. And at a Guyanese party there will be chow mein, cook up rice, roti and chicken curry, black pudding, and pepper pot. As far as all are concerned, its just Guyanese food.
Those who pretend that they live in a tribally monolithic world, and who exclude those, because they arent of the tribe. Who harrass their kids if they fall in love with some one from a different race/religion (the reason behind more than a few of the suicides) are the ones who seek homogeneity.
Those who embrace being Guyanese, therefore not only celebrating its diversity, but even existing in a cultural continuum are the ones who embrace what being Guyanese is about. I can assure you, far from a representation of insipid homogeneity, these are the ones who can bond with other Guyanese, regardless of which ethnic group they may be from.
