Disappointed by comments on Venezuelan

THE EDITOR: Let me state that I know nothing about beauty pageants, and I am not commenting on Mileidy Materano stepping down as Miss Grand International TT. I will, however, deal with other things surrounding this issue which were disturbing to read and personally experience.

The not-so-subtle xenophobia overtly and covertly shared by many on social and traditional media was very disappointing. From the average person to those people who should know better, many exposed their dislike, distrust and outright hate for Materano, simply because she was Venezuelan. For a time it seemed people were equating being Venezuelan to being bad and not right.

Other comments can only be described as an attack on a woman. Whether through jealousy or sexism, some took the opportunity to spew venom for the gender and sex the young woman represents, with one acquaintance saying we should not be represented by a "lady of the night," which as far as I know she is not.

But perhaps the most disturbing element of the comments was the blatant racism expressed. And for those unconvinced that there was a racial and colour element to some attacks, ask yourself if those comments would have been made if the "foreigner" was from Grenada, St Vincent, Guyana, Barbados, etc?

The irony and hypocrisy of what was displayed is that most of us living here have a friend or family member who migrated to "foreign," and we would be rightfully up in arms if the people in that country made similar arguments against our people, for whatever reason.

So, in moving forward may I humbly suggest that we exercise a little bit of introspection, see that many of us didn’t live up to the words of our national anthem that "every creed and race finds an equal place," and for all of us to simply try to be better human beings – the one common bond that all of us share.

TIM TEEMAL

St James