Personal attacks will destroy us

Dr Gabrielle Hosein
Dr Gabrielle Hosein

DR GABRIELLE JAMELA HOSEIN

MOCKERY OF names is an old form of schoolyard insult, and historically it has been racist as much as sexist and classist. There is also a long history of feeling ashamed of one’s name, whether Indian or African, and of European colonial names either being forcibly imposed on colonised people, as part of their dehumanisation, or chosen by them in order gain acceptance they would otherwise be denied.

Naming, and specifically Afro-Caribbean efforts to identify with African names similar to those once taken, has been an effort to overcome deep losses suffered because of colonial masters. Others have lived with the names their ancestors were assigned, making identities and lives that are full of love, connection, memories and humanity, creating new meanings from survival of once-wretched conditions. Names are sacred and should not ever be used as fodder for insult.

Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s clapback was hurtful and alienating, casting those with Indian ancestral names as superior to those Africans who were denied theirs, knowing this difference is a result of colonial violence. Insensitivity to history is what makes it racist, beyond acceptable banter of political picong.

It was intended to provoke shame, just as Indian names have been and still are deliberately mispronounced, misspelled (see the PM’s Facebook post) or made fun of to shame a people for who they are. Knowing these wounds, as they are experienced and remembered by many in our population, should make us refuse to let ravages of history ever be a basis for belittling each other.

The insults being thrown from all sides of the political platform have become more personal, more violent, more unnecessary, more divisive, and more harmful to our everyday lives. There is hardly a politician today who isn’t guilty of this or of applauding when party colleagues launch into a language of derision and abuse.

Camille Robinson-Regis’s repeated use of Persad-Bissessar’s entire Hindu name dog-whistled that Indians cannot be trusted, or that’s what was heard. It felt weird and excessive as much as extremely methodical and deliberately personal to state and restate Persad-Bissessar’s name that way.

I noted, but dismissed it. Robinson-Regis likes gutter talk about narcissists and predilections. Is so cross-talk goes sometimes. It was also the Opposition Leader’s “government name,” and its use is so easy to put out of context (many use the PM’s whole name regularly), that such tactics make you wonder if you are imagining things, though you know what you hear and how it makes people feel.

I was intrigued that the Emancipation Support Committee didn’t recognise this in its press statement, which highlights how we don’t hear words in the same way in our society, even if we are genuinely committed to anti-racism. Indeed, acknowledging how ethnic groups differently receive and feel about words is part of addressing inherited disagreements in our shared journey.

Any political analyst will tell you that Persad-Bissessar disappointingly took the bait. Such poor judgment is her responsibility, particularly for someone who needs to win the majority of the popular vote in the next election, which includes Afro-Trinidadian voters, mixed-race voters and anti-racists of all ethnicities. When the other side goes low, expect justified outcry if you go even lower, with a much more obviously racist comment.

Mrs Persad-Bissessar’s thoughtlessness should make all us stop what is becoming a way of speaking, from the very top of our society to what should be the safe spaces of our schoolyards. She should apologise, just as Winford James did for his bizarre and racist column on Indian names a few weeks ago.

We can all understand what disrespect, delivered humorously or not, feels like and, on that basis, should make a fierce effort to protect and defend not only ourselves, but each other when it happens.

Racism has no place here, whether obvious or subtle, acknowledged by others or trivialised. Mocking another is not funny, particularly in a society where trauma and scars inform our feelings of victimisation as much as our ease with violence.

Condemn her words. Also use this moment to call for personal attacks as an increasingly popular mode of self-governance to stop, whether in Parliament, on radio stations, on social media, from Cabinet, from Opposition; from adults who well know when they are being petty, scoring cheap points or throwing words, when backed by their pack, like a bully.

Wielding power this way must not be us. Winning power this way will destroy us. It is already hard enough to be one people forging one nation, together.

Diary of a mothering worker

Entry 464

motheringworker@gmail.com

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"Personal attacks will destroy us"

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