– USA/T&T scenarios
PRESIDENT Barack Obama has been driven on the defensive over his recent surprised involvement in a local issue of racial profiling.

While in Trinidad and Tobago, opposition parliamentarian Dr Tim Gopeesingh was on the offensive with allegations of “ethnic cleansing” at the state-run Port-of-Spain General Hospital.

Race often comes second only to sex in discussions of sensitive social problems in the United States of America as well as in multi-racial societies the world over, and most certainly in our Caribbean Community.

It is baffling to me as a Journalist of the Caribbean, who has lived and worked in Trinidad and Tobago and with resident family members in what remains the most cosmopolitan of CARICOM societies, that a reputed medical doctor and experienced politician like Gopeesingh could have so trapped himself by his accusation of “ethnic cleansing”.

Complaints of racism and racial discrimination have been and continue to afflict past and present governments in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, though frequently met with strenuous official denials–as happened in the current case of Dr Gopeesingh and the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.

This writer knows of a number of cases involving racist attitudes and racial discrimination within CARICOM; and has also been sensitised to deep-rooted racism in the Dominican Republic with Haitians as primary victims.

But I am unaware of any official policy of so-called “ethnic cleansing” anywhere in the Greater Caribbean region.

Certainly not in CARICOM. For anyone in public life to confuse racial discrimination, or a known example of racism, with the the crime of “ethnic cleansing” (as claimed by Dr Gopeesingh), is to invite public ridicule and endanger one’s profession and standing in the national community.

On the other hand, the cases of claimed racial discrimination, as expressed in response to Dr Gopeesingh’s very emotive charge of “ethnic cleansing”, introduces another dimension to a recurring controversy in the political culture. It is one that cannot be ignored or treated with a similarly emotional response, like that of Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s unfortunate “gutter snipe” remark, to the opposition parliamentarian.

DEFINITIONS:
Readers may be aware of the official United Nations definition of ethnic cleansing as “rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation from a given area of persons of another ethnic or religious group…”

This crime, not to be confused with cases of genocide, entered into international consciousness in the 1990s with the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, and later with horrific manifestations also in Rwanda and other parts of Africa.

On the other hand, the UN has defined in its “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination” to mean “any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life…”

OBAMA’S GAFFE:
Now, for an observation on President Obama’s unfortunate blunder with his “acted stupidly” remark in reference to the case involving Cambridge Massachusettes Police Sergeant James Crowley and the distinguished scholar, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

It is difficult to ignore the element of hypocrisy on the part of those (in the media and otherwise) who have been shouting their anger at Obama, even indulging in political threats, for simply failing, as he later acknowledged, for not being careful in his “choice of words” and, consequently, contributing to a “media frenzy” that could have been “calibrated differently”.

This is the courageous politician “of change” who has been extremely careful in his discourse on race in America long before he wrote himself into 21st century history as the first African-American President of the USA – thanks largely to the popular votes received from White America.

A reading of his best-selling “The Audacity of Hope” provides some revealing insights on politics, faith and race. One relevant observation on the “race” factor was his contention, as written:

“Rightly, or wrongly, white guilt has largely exhausted itself in America; even the most fair-minded of whites, those who genuinely like to see racial inequality ended and poverty relieved, tend to push back against suggestions of racial victimisation–or race-specific claims based on the history of race discrimination in this country…”

On hindsight, one can concur that it may have been wise to avoid the public intervention in the manner he did in the case of professor Gates and police officer Crowley. Personally, I cannot help wondering what would have been the scenario had the “stupid” remark came from a White President in also noting an established case of overreaction, FIRST by officer Crowley?