– for use of ethnic, racial slurs

EVEN as the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) is in the process of hiring investigators and new staff, there are moves afoot for penalties to be attached to the use of racial slurs.
In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday, member of the ERC responsible for Indigenous-Amerindian bodies, Ashton Simon, spoke of these plans.

He said that through the ERC, he intends to address the use of ethnic or racial slurs, the official term for which is ethnophaulisms, to be considered offensive.

“We have to ensure that legislation is developed to address matters like these,” Simon said.

“We’re trying to develop a glossary of words that should not be used; derogatory terms, towards any ethnic group and there must be legislation in place that if that is done, that the authorities step in.”

Given that Guyana is a potpourri of six ethnicities, Simon said he has over the years heard his fair share of ethnic slurs.

He said that while the use of these slurs is practised by all ethnicities, it is more commonplace among those of Afro and Indo-Guyanese and people of Indigenous descent.
There are even instances, he said, where persons use slurs meant to offend their ethnicity as a weapon against their own people.

ITS MANY FUNCTIONS
According to Article 212 (a) of the Constitution of Guyana, the ERC is tasked with 24 functions, among which is the duty to “promote the elimination of all forms of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity,” and “discourage and prohibit persons, institutions, political parties and associates from indulging in, advocating or promoting discriminatory practices on the ground of ethnicity.”

Simon, however, explained that there are steps which must be taken before the ERC can begin to address some of these concerns.

Speaking on his assigned position through which he hopes to accomplish much, Simon said:
“We have not formally launched into Amerindian areas as yet, because we’re now only constituted seven months, and the absence of the ERC was about seven years. So, we are now trying to catch up with some of the staffing of the ERC; we are now hiring people to assist as investigators, and other departments that we serve are in need to be staffed.”
The hiring of investigators comes under another of the ERC’s many functions, which is to investigate complaints of racial discrimination and make recommendations on the measures to be taken, if such complaints are found to be valid.

However, even with the process still ongoing, visits have been made to several Indigenous communities near Anna Regina in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).These include Capoey, Mashabo, Mainstay-Whyaka and Bethany, where there were also engagements with the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), Village Council and other stakeholders.
“We heard from them the issues on ethnic relations,” Simon said. “Some of them did not understand what the Ethnic Relations Commission was, and so we tried our best to ensure that they understood before we left.

“We’re happy that we were able to let them know that these were some of the deliverables from the ERC,” he added.

One the concerns raised during the familiarisation venture came from a young woman of both Indigenous and Afro-Guyanese extract, who was confused about where she stood with regard to the ERC.

MORE ACCEPTING
“We’re trying to ride over that now, because we’re more accepting of people other than Amerindians coming into Indigenous communities. I think that education is the cornerstone for propelling that kind of understanding,” Simon said.

This education on how more Guyanese can become more accepting of those different from them is what the ERC member wants to see spread across the country, in keeping with his vision for the commission.

“I know that we do have a very difficult time during the election period,” he said, adding:
“We live very good after elections for the three-and-a-half years, but then we have a very bad time when it comes to elections; everybody gets caught up with this thing, which should not happen.

“We’re going to work assiduously to educate; it’s all about education. We can’t go and tell people just to live well; you have to go and educate them as to the reason why you must not do that; the reason why everybody must like each other.

“It would be very good for the country, because if we do that, it means that we’ll be seeing our issues that we have to deal with as ‘ours’ and not ‘the Amerindian problem,’ because you talk about lands or an ‘African issue’ because you talk about Victoria.”

He stated further that it is also the responsibility of the country’s leaders to live by example, even as the ERC has recently met with both the government and leader of the opposition to discuss their concerns.

“We are trying now, before the year ends, to meet with as much [sic] stakeholders that we can, because next year, we want to kick off doing other things,” Simon said.

Leaving a message to Indigenous communities for which he takes leadership, he added: “If you have issues, if you think you’re being discriminated against because of ethnic reasons, you can call, you can write, and there are other methods that you can do to contact the ERC.

“Once you do that, persons will record your engagement and then from there we have investigators that will look into it and engage you from there on, until the matter is resolved.”