"LIVING GUYANA" COULD BE SO MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE

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.

Comments

[Carol]

Hi Charmaine,

Good for you! I never refer to myself as Afro-Guyanese. It is downright derogatory and demeaning indeed. I don't understand why they just can't be satisfied with saying "Guyanese". They think that they are classifying us by our race, but since when does the term "Afro" signify one's race? They even go so far as to shorten it sometimes to say "she/he is an "Afro"! Of course, they (and I am really not too sure who I am referring to as "they" ) are doing a copycat of the Americans long, abandoned usage of the word. People can't seem to refer to each other anymore without mentioning their race, by whatever is their preferred descriptive word. For whatever it is worth, whenever I am forced to refer to someone's race, I use the words Indian, Black, Chinese, etc. That also does not seem appropriate, because everyone else is described in relation to their geographic origin, but we are described by our colour. In that regard, therefore, it may be more appropriate to say African, but somehow that does not seem to sit well with me either. Frankly, when I think of myself, the most important thing to me is my gender and not so much race. One can debate these issues "until thy kingdom come"

Anyway, on another note, dem people try to "rass you up, but you give dey rass good! Ah bet dey sayin, oh rass, we meet we meter now! Dey en know dat you come outa Better Hope whey you neba dem bin rassing up wan annada all de time.

[kim]

well all righty then

[GG]

You go girl! The Guyanese people who insist on classifying themselves as Indo and Afro don't know how stupid they sound.If they are trying to identify themselves with the country of their ancestors, the "Afro" Guyanese should find out whatever part of Africa they came from and put that country in front of Guyanese, or the "Indo" Guyanese should be called "Asia" Guyanese. You can't qualify some by a country and others by a continent; and what about those whose ancestors came from Pakistan, Portugal, China, etc.? What do they call the mixed races? the native Guyanese? Jackasses. Plain ole "Guyanese" not good enough for you?

[guyana gyal]

I must admit, I 'categorise' people on my blog when I'm in a hurry to write. I am aware that it is lazy / speed writing.

I think the key is to keep an open mind to hearing what others say, to what you've just said, so we can keep learning.