ESCTT: End post-election racist statements

The Emancipation Support Committee TT (ESCTT) has called for an end to racist statements after the August 10 general election.

It called on TT’s leaders not only to publicly denounce openly inciting racist statements but also to take measures at the state and civil levels to rescue TT from growing negative racial sentiment.

In a post on its Facebook page, the committee said the 2020 general election is over but some of the “disturbing racist comments” circulated in the public domain in its wake could damage the potential for the society to rise above the critical challenges facing the country.

The committee said international news showed even the largest economies in the world were “tottering” in the covid 19pandemic’s wake and TT was not immune.

“To his credit, however, the re-elected Prime Minister, in his victory statement on August 10, began preparing the population for two difficult years ahead.

“It is one thing for political parties to create unrealistic expectations in the population about economic growth during an election campaign but another to resort to coded language and racially insensitive advertising that excite negative emotions about each other in our nation’s Indian and African populations,” it said.

It said one consequence of this was visible in “some of the extreme anti-African racist statements on Facebook” drawn to its attention.

The release said some of the “most offensive remarks” were shared by Naila Ramsaran and Akash Vish Pundit.

“No ‘apology’ that rings as insincere as Ms Ramsaran’s does could wipe away the anger generated by her reference to us as ‘the loafers that support the PNM’ who will continue to depend on the taxes paid by her and other ‘hardworking United National Congress (UNC) supporters’ to mind us.

“Worse when the insult is amplified by Akash’s claim that the ‘loafers’ referred to by Ramsaran would, presumably each of us, be ‘making 12 children for the state to support,’” it said.

The committee said no post-election disappointment could justify such expressions.

It was significant that Ramsaran referred to Africans as "cockroaches," it said.

Ramsaran Dairy products have since been removed from the shelves of several supermarkets across the country.

The committee also said, “Perhaps more of our people who blindly support the crude, dehumanising descriptors for our people often used by our present Commissioner of Police, which include the word 'cockroaches,' would now understand the deadly racist connotations of such language. Our self-respect demands that we do not accept such characterisations from anyone.

It added that TT could not continue on a road that would lead to its destruction.

“We are still at a point where sanity about race relationships is strong enough in both our communities, where there is enough genuine goodwill and recognition of our co-dependence and common interests for us to arrest what is potentially a very destructive slide,” the release said.

ESCTT said as the country commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Black Power revolution, it needed to revisit the lessons which taught the principled path to achieving harmony in diversity.