bahamianpride
05-16-07, - 08:43 PM
Beyond denial into transformation
http://www.thenassauguardian.com/editorial/345379300992583.php
helenklonaris@gmail.com
"This is the place, and we are the people."
It was with something akin to renewed faith that I first listened to, then read for myself the May 10th editorial in the Bahama Journal. Reflecting on the words of our new Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham, the writer of that editorial calls for more than words to take us into a future in which discrimination ceases to exist.
"In a 21st Century Bahamas," said the prime minister, "if we are to become all that we might be we must aspire to transcend historic prejudices and break loose from the stereotypical bounds of the politics of race and class division that belongs to a bygone era. That is behind us and we must leave it so that we can achieve full unity in our land with government dedicated to serving all Bahamians, black and white, middle class, rich and poor, young and old, able and disabled."
The Bahama Journal wrote that there is no argument with these aspirations, that in fact, when discrimination of every kind is eliminated, that will be a "great day not only for The Bahamas, but for human beings everywhere. That is because were we to achieve such a feat, our example could provide a template for people all over the world."
But what the Bahama Journal editorial does take issue with is the idea that we can arrive at this day by pretending that such discrimination is already "behind us" and the notion that "we must leave it" there in order to "achieve full unity".
The truth is, says the writer of that editorial, "race does matter in The Bahamas. Class does matter in The Bahamas. Ethnicity does matter in The Bahamas. Gender and sexual orientation do matter in The Bahamas and so does disability. And for sure, so does poverty and wealth living cheek to jowl in the same society." Yes, yes, yes.
And, the truth is, we can never achieve unity by being blind to what hurts us. We can never fully trust one another as long as white people pretend we do not look at the world through racist lenses; as long as wealthy folk support economic and social agendas that do not represent and are not concerned with the realities of the poor and working classes; as long as straight people refuse to consider that sexual orientation is more complicated than we've all been taught to believe; as long as able-bodied people choose not to think about the realities of disabled Bahamians who also have every right to move freely in the world, whose rights to do so are not special, but ordinary, necessary, real. What we leave behind in an effort to achieve unity is precisely what we need in order to heal and cultivate true-true connections.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said that "peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of justice." We are scared of making the past "an issue" mostly because we do not have much practice in exposing the places in us that hurt, or the places in us that have hurt others. We are afraid of the conflict that will ensue, believing that all conflict creates division. We are used to conflict engendering more hurt, violence, wars. But silence or war is not our only choice. We can learn to speak, argue, disagree, listen, stay and come to new understandings of things which really do matter, without annihilating each other, spiritually or physically. In fact, it is only through this kind of dialogue, often messy, often uncomfortable and painful, about things which really do matter, even when we disagree, that justice has a chance of existing, that a way forward can be forged: one that is not a lie.
It is in the spirit of forging a way forward, and in the radical belief that "our example could provide a template for people all over the world" that I want to make a suggestion to this new government. Instead of wishing away the past, and speaking away the realities of race and class prejudice, indeed, of any prejudice, that they take concrete measures to walk with us towards real transformation. This requires at least three things: acknowledgement of the realities we are living; the imagination to do something about them; putting resources towards imaginative solutions.
Acknowledging the realities: the writer of the Bahama Journal editorial writes "Experience elsewhere would seem to suggest that before a problem can be resolved, it must first be recognized as a problem." Political leaders, including the Honorable Brent Symonette, are being called to speak to these realities, not away from them.
Imagining solutions: the government of The Bahamas can seek out and collaborate with this society's most imaginative thinkers, and be those imaginative thinkers themselves in order to create new solutions to old problems. Often it is those at the fringes and margins of society who have the most dynamic strategies for mainstream dilemmas.
Resources for imaginative solutions: the government can allocate resources and funding towards concrete long term strategies for healing. One example might be an educational program whose core objectives are the teaching of the values of diversity. Included in this program might be courses on the history of racism in the west; the history of sexism and homophobia; the history of the disabled rights movements, to name a few. There might be courses that explore the interconnectedness of human beings and the environment as well as non-violent conflict resolution. These courses might be interdisciplinary, combining the arts with history, so that young people learn to value feeling and thinking, art and theory as necessary to social transformation, their own.
Of course, social change is not the sole responsibility of our government. We are all responsible together. The government is part and parcel of the wide and deep "us". Whatever our locations, we have the right and responsibility to imagine too.
But saying we have the right or responsibility to imagine does not necessarily enable us to do so. How can we imagine the future if we do not see clearly the realities that brought us this far and that live embedded in our language, our vision, our inherited values? Nancy Richardson, a Harvard theologian of European descent, used to say "You can't move from a place you deny you are in." She said this in response to the unacknowledged racism of white people in the US . And to the reality that social change cannot occur while people themselves refuse to see clearly where there are. And indeed, denial seems to be the fuel that ideologies like racism thrive on.
And again, the truth is, our imaginations are stunted when there are whole pieces of our collective histories shunned or shut out. Our imaginations are weakened and tired when we ignore or deny the realities that exist all around us, preferring instead to turn on the TV and tune out. So that when it comes to community and nation building, there is a whole lot of nothing new. And so the old and weary drama continues.
Still, each time the pendulum swings, it is a new day, and with that new day comes the possibility to create something that did not exist before. The Prime Minister and his newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister, as well as the entire cabinet in collaboration with the opposition and every community living in these islands as well as the Bahamian Diaspora, we have the opportunity to redefine race relations in the Bahamas at all levels; to redefine social relations in the Bahamas at all levels by facing and speaking the realities that do exist and by having the courage to imagine what could exist instead. Then we must put into action these new ideas and act as if our lives depended on them.
I think it was Felix Bethel who said to me once, "This is the place and we are the people." I do not doubt that he meant all of us. There is untold possibility in those words. And power.
http://www.thenassauguardian.com/editorial/345379300992583.php
helenklonaris@gmail.com
"This is the place, and we are the people."
It was with something akin to renewed faith that I first listened to, then read for myself the May 10th editorial in the Bahama Journal. Reflecting on the words of our new Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham, the writer of that editorial calls for more than words to take us into a future in which discrimination ceases to exist.
"In a 21st Century Bahamas," said the prime minister, "if we are to become all that we might be we must aspire to transcend historic prejudices and break loose from the stereotypical bounds of the politics of race and class division that belongs to a bygone era. That is behind us and we must leave it so that we can achieve full unity in our land with government dedicated to serving all Bahamians, black and white, middle class, rich and poor, young and old, able and disabled."
The Bahama Journal wrote that there is no argument with these aspirations, that in fact, when discrimination of every kind is eliminated, that will be a "great day not only for The Bahamas, but for human beings everywhere. That is because were we to achieve such a feat, our example could provide a template for people all over the world."
But what the Bahama Journal editorial does take issue with is the idea that we can arrive at this day by pretending that such discrimination is already "behind us" and the notion that "we must leave it" there in order to "achieve full unity".
The truth is, says the writer of that editorial, "race does matter in The Bahamas. Class does matter in The Bahamas. Ethnicity does matter in The Bahamas. Gender and sexual orientation do matter in The Bahamas and so does disability. And for sure, so does poverty and wealth living cheek to jowl in the same society." Yes, yes, yes.
And, the truth is, we can never achieve unity by being blind to what hurts us. We can never fully trust one another as long as white people pretend we do not look at the world through racist lenses; as long as wealthy folk support economic and social agendas that do not represent and are not concerned with the realities of the poor and working classes; as long as straight people refuse to consider that sexual orientation is more complicated than we've all been taught to believe; as long as able-bodied people choose not to think about the realities of disabled Bahamians who also have every right to move freely in the world, whose rights to do so are not special, but ordinary, necessary, real. What we leave behind in an effort to achieve unity is precisely what we need in order to heal and cultivate true-true connections.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said that "peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of justice." We are scared of making the past "an issue" mostly because we do not have much practice in exposing the places in us that hurt, or the places in us that have hurt others. We are afraid of the conflict that will ensue, believing that all conflict creates division. We are used to conflict engendering more hurt, violence, wars. But silence or war is not our only choice. We can learn to speak, argue, disagree, listen, stay and come to new understandings of things which really do matter, without annihilating each other, spiritually or physically. In fact, it is only through this kind of dialogue, often messy, often uncomfortable and painful, about things which really do matter, even when we disagree, that justice has a chance of existing, that a way forward can be forged: one that is not a lie.
It is in the spirit of forging a way forward, and in the radical belief that "our example could provide a template for people all over the world" that I want to make a suggestion to this new government. Instead of wishing away the past, and speaking away the realities of race and class prejudice, indeed, of any prejudice, that they take concrete measures to walk with us towards real transformation. This requires at least three things: acknowledgement of the realities we are living; the imagination to do something about them; putting resources towards imaginative solutions.
Acknowledging the realities: the writer of the Bahama Journal editorial writes "Experience elsewhere would seem to suggest that before a problem can be resolved, it must first be recognized as a problem." Political leaders, including the Honorable Brent Symonette, are being called to speak to these realities, not away from them.
Imagining solutions: the government of The Bahamas can seek out and collaborate with this society's most imaginative thinkers, and be those imaginative thinkers themselves in order to create new solutions to old problems. Often it is those at the fringes and margins of society who have the most dynamic strategies for mainstream dilemmas.
Resources for imaginative solutions: the government can allocate resources and funding towards concrete long term strategies for healing. One example might be an educational program whose core objectives are the teaching of the values of diversity. Included in this program might be courses on the history of racism in the west; the history of sexism and homophobia; the history of the disabled rights movements, to name a few. There might be courses that explore the interconnectedness of human beings and the environment as well as non-violent conflict resolution. These courses might be interdisciplinary, combining the arts with history, so that young people learn to value feeling and thinking, art and theory as necessary to social transformation, their own.
Of course, social change is not the sole responsibility of our government. We are all responsible together. The government is part and parcel of the wide and deep "us". Whatever our locations, we have the right and responsibility to imagine too.
But saying we have the right or responsibility to imagine does not necessarily enable us to do so. How can we imagine the future if we do not see clearly the realities that brought us this far and that live embedded in our language, our vision, our inherited values? Nancy Richardson, a Harvard theologian of European descent, used to say "You can't move from a place you deny you are in." She said this in response to the unacknowledged racism of white people in the US . And to the reality that social change cannot occur while people themselves refuse to see clearly where there are. And indeed, denial seems to be the fuel that ideologies like racism thrive on.
And again, the truth is, our imaginations are stunted when there are whole pieces of our collective histories shunned or shut out. Our imaginations are weakened and tired when we ignore or deny the realities that exist all around us, preferring instead to turn on the TV and tune out. So that when it comes to community and nation building, there is a whole lot of nothing new. And so the old and weary drama continues.
Still, each time the pendulum swings, it is a new day, and with that new day comes the possibility to create something that did not exist before. The Prime Minister and his newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister, as well as the entire cabinet in collaboration with the opposition and every community living in these islands as well as the Bahamian Diaspora, we have the opportunity to redefine race relations in the Bahamas at all levels; to redefine social relations in the Bahamas at all levels by facing and speaking the realities that do exist and by having the courage to imagine what could exist instead. Then we must put into action these new ideas and act as if our lives depended on them.
I think it was Felix Bethel who said to me once, "This is the place and we are the people." I do not doubt that he meant all of us. There is untold possibility in those words. And power.