Offensive words usually say more about the speaker’s character than the people who are the targets of insults. There shouldn’t be any acceptance that a hateful word used by a trade unionist and Tobago House of Assembly (THA) minority leader to describe members of the public is excusable as a form of modern-day “endearment.” Any politician who insults sections of the society because of their ethnicity, gender, religion, or disability, would feel emboldened when citizens, particularly those who were directly targeted, do nothing.
The media and rest of the public weren’t asleep when on previous occasions, politicians had used race on platforms as a strategy to advance their goals. They got thunder. Still fresh in our minds are the remarks, at a recent UNC meeting by the former director of Intelligence of the National Security Agency that the Government had asked him to fire all East Indians. He’d never clarified who in government had given the instructions. Race-baiting in politics is nothing new in this country or elsewhere for that matter. It is divisive and unacceptable.
During a recent press conference, the President of the Public Services Association (PSA) said, “I am asking all ni**ers, all black people like myself...not to support the PNM” if the Government doesn’t address the payment of salary increases to public servants by December. “Do not do it,” he said.
Quite disingenuously, he tried to defend the use of the word, saying it was “misused and abused,” that people have misunderstood its meaning; “it is a Latin word that means black,” and used as a term of “endearment among black people.” When the radio talk show host said it was derogatory and that listeners found it offensive, he acknowledged that, so he knew it was nasty but said, “My only apology is to those who don’t understand the use of it. But for the PNM hogs, I have no apology for those persons. None whatsoever.”
There’s nothing wrong with anyone telling the public to vote for or against any person or party, but to slur one group of voters is another matter. The PSA doesn’t represent one ethnic group and the Government owe salaries to all public servants, but the trade unionist didn’t solicit all voters but insensitively characterised one group to use as a political tool against an opponent. There wasn’t public outrage as had happened in the recent past. Maybe many people have become immune to such dysfunctional outbursts, and shrugged off the derogatory word thinking there is a level of ignorance associated with incivility, so why bother?
The PNM responded—excerpts: “the PNM and the rest of our decent nation are truly disgusted by Watson Duke’s latest offensive outburst which he delivered while pretending to be representing public servants.
“As he describes Afro-Trinidadians in the most offensive way, he makes the misleading claim that workers across the public service have been ignored since 2013...”
The trade unionist-turned politician holds positions of influence and trust, and the power to check offensive conduct of elected officials across the political divide rests with responsible citizens when there’s no other system of accountability. Citizens may choose to trade self-respect and a culture of peace for promises by merchants of infamy who insult them and relegate their ancestors’ agony and sacrifices to nothing. Worse, they may choose to engender in the minds of their children a distorted sense of self by accepting an insult as an endearment, causing others to treat them accordingly. There are denigrating terms associated with every ethnic group, but no other leader or groups racially slur their people and themselves.
We should be fed-up of the vampin (an expression associated with a very offensive smell). Race-baiting and other distasteful political strategies are equivalent to foul scents emitted by the offenders. It’s no comfort that we’re not the only society that would elect noxious people to important positions who vamp up their countries but, given the minuscule dot on the world map that represents our space, the scent is overwhelmingly disgusting.
It’s more than high time we move on from that kind of backwardness. We have the power to use our votes against boorish politicians and leaders who do nothing to nurture community harmony and build the esteem of our society.