The Living Guyana people had this to say in response to my comment on their use of the term "Afro-Guyanese" :
We're finding immense difficulty understanding why Charmaine Valere finds the term 'Afro' as 'derogatory and ignorant'. We use 'Afro' in the same way we use 'Indo', they are both shortened versions of African and Indian respectively. Perhaps Charmaine wishes for us to write out 'Indian Guyanese' and 'African Guyanese', if that is the case she can kiss our black/coolie/dougla/putagee/buck/chinee bamsee.
Or perhaps she is suggesting that 'Afro' is equal to 'negro' or 'nigger'? Come on Charmaine, explain yourself so we can either understand or expose and slam your rass.
And I say...
When you're in the habit of borrowing terms to accomplish (dubious) goals (such as categorizing the people in your country, as in this case), then you should at least keep abreast with the important changes that go along with the terms you borrow. The hyphenated term "Afro-somebody of African descent living outside of Africa is no longer used by the people who first coined it. These days (hello enlightenment!) they, and most other people of African descent around the world prefer an identification term that reflects more than a hairstyle.
Why must Guyana borrow and remain stuck with terms that the rest of the civilized world has shunned?
And yes, names are an integral part of the development of any group's identity and upliftment. Living Guyana's insistence on characterizing the antagonistic relationship between people of Indian and African descent in Guyana as hopeless is not uplifting in any way. Maybe by telling it crudely and crassly they think they're providing some much-needed national service to their (supposedly) less-educated readers. Haha!
If Living Guyana spent some time figuring out and writing about the real reasons behind ethnic animosities in Guyana instead of sprouting borrowed, racist, idiotic theories about slavery (are these people for real?), they'll see that the 28 years of PNC rule may not be the whole story. It can't hurt to dig into the way people really see each other's differences. Living Guyana has a legitimate space to start a serious discourse on ethnic issues in Guyana. Maybe they should spend some time doing that rather than trying to slam my rass.
