EVEN the uneducated and the illiterate know that living in society carries unavoidable responsibilities. But there is a sub-culture in every society that does not have to bear that burden. These are low-life humans that have no social standing (no apologies offered), and there they behave without thinking about what people say about them.
I have chalked up more than 58 years in social activism and 38 years in the media; thus, I have had my share of people accosting me while driving, walking, and shopping, and they would shout out unpleasant things. Do you know without exception, those shouts have come from low-life individuals who have no status to protect?
This is where societal responsibility comes in. I don’t think any bank clerk, teacher, UG student, UG lecturer, doctor, lawyer, nurse, policeman, etc., will ever give off those unpleasant shouts because they know their jobs carry responsibilities and status. It is risking immediate dismissal if I tell a bank manager one of his employees accousted me at the gas station and used the C-word against me.
It is for this reason, anonymous critics will forever remain anonymous. They cannot run the risk of people knowing the levels they descend to. When the Stabroek News was in existence, I would read the online comments on the letter pages. These were the most pathetic displays of ignorance one can ever imagine, but we will never know who wrote them. It is continuing with the successor of Stabroek News, named Kiskadee Watch.
So I come to the headline of this column. There is a rabidly racist editorial in the online newspaper, allegedly financed by WIN, titled the Village Voice. The viewpoint is entitled: “Black people who weaponized their Government related positions to work against other Black people should be shunned,” dated September 13, 2026. There is no identifiable writer. That person knows the consequences of writing such degenerate miasma because society will not react kindly.
I quote from the editorial, and my comments will follow, but my take may necessitate more than one article: “Blacks who work for the government, or for organisations which depend on being “in” with the government of Guyana, are the most dangerous. These people are the most dangerous because of their insecurity… they do not have enough self-confidence or self-respect to believe fully in themselves. “
The editorial went on a racist rant using bogus psychological theories to explain why African Guyanese (the term “Black people” was used throughout the editorial) who work with the Government of Guyana are not people of positive quality. The editorial resorts to the usual sociological vulgarity of using the house slave syndrome to describe African Guyanese that work for what they refer to throughout in the editorial as “the PPP Government.”
Before I confront this racist demagoguery, I quote an interesting section of the viewpoint that can be used against the PNC when it was in government between 2015 and 2020: “In Guyana Black elites perform loyalty to power structures and police their own communities, not because they are instructed to do so, but because their sense of self is tied to the master’s house, and they will do anything to keep their room there.”
Which government does this remind you of? The Granger administration held a commissioner of inquiry into the public service and refused the commission’s recommendation of upping the retirement age for civil servants, a majority of which are African Guyanese. The very PNC government that held a commission into land holdings and not one African Guyanese family got a plot after the commission’s work was completed.
The very PNC government that promised African youths to change the draconian legislation over marijuana possession then refused to do so when the PNC got into power. The very PNC government that forcefully cleared the Stabroek Market vendors to make way for a march and rally commemorating the 50th anniversary of Independence. The very PNC government that paid an extraordinarily wealthy Indian family 3 million Guyana dollars monthly for the rental of the SARA office while African entrepreneurs had scores of properties to rent the government.
What psychological theories do you apply to this African party named the PNC when it was in power from 2015 to 2020? Here is the irony deeply embedded in the sociology of Guyana. There are more manifestations of African Guyanese liberation under the presidency of an Indian man, Irfaan Ali, than under an African president named David Granger. This African president once edited a book named “Themes in African Guyanese History.” There is one theme in African Guyanese history, Granger’s book overlooked – African Guyanese have always been betrayed by their African leaders. Who wrote that Village Voice editorial? The ERC should charge him ASAP!
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.