VVP posted:The distrust between races were created by politics. Prior to the 1960s there was not that much distrust.
Hmmm. I was reading an analysis about intra Caribbean migration. It focused on Trinidad, Barbados and St Kitts/Nevis as destinations. Guyanese being well represented in all three.
What was noted in all 3 was the degree of separation between Afro and Indo Guyanese. This view being expressed by the locals who didn't understand why a Guyanese political squabble should be imported into their lands, and with it inter ethnic tensions.
Now one would think that in majority black islands (Barbados and St Kitts/Nevis) Indians would think that developing relations with the local mainly black populations would be advantageous. And that one way of doing this would be to mix heavily with Afro Guyanese, who clearly will be more easily assimilated, given that accent is all that differentiates them from the locals.
Instead this distance exists between the two groups, the result being that the black locals see Indo Guyanese as being clannish. In fact the analysis indicated that the Guyanese Association in Nevis was mainly blacks, even though most of the Guyanese on that island were Indians.
I might buy into a notion that Burnham and Jagan are to blame for what happens in Guyana, where access to political power in an ethnically polarized nation fosters ethnic distrust. But why in Barbados and St Kitts/Nevis where it would in the interest of Indo Guyanese to be not seen as a group hostile to blacks? Because it is the black locals who will issue them work permits so that they can stay, and who will hound them down if they don't like them.