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Race/Colour in Barbados

"I was bullied at school for being white...Now I'm in a much bigger world"- Rihanna

That quote (and the Barbados free Press article where i read it) got me thinking about the intersections of race, colour, class and gender in the Caribbean. These are the thoughts that rushed around in my head as i read it:

Even when we remind ourselves of just how fluid and contested race is we fail to reveal that race is in itself a fiction.

When we refuse to see the difference between historical racial privilege and racial slurs we foreclose on any opportunity to dismantle the fiction of race.

And when we recognise race as constructed we refuse to see its construction does not make it any less "real".

Isn't the suggestion that Barbados is some backward small-minded racist society in contrast to a bigger, wider, "global" community devoid of racism and colour prejudice not only ridiculously inaccurate but naive?

What have been the effects of Caribbean countries such Jamaica and the Dominican Republic representing themselves as more "brown" than they really are? Who gets included? Who's left excluded?

Does a majority black government in Barbados translate into a monolithic, hegemonic blackness?

What kinds of images(fictions) of black women does the international media produce?

Barbados is made up of many closed communities, bounded by race/colour, class and nationality. Is there are real interest in crossing these boundaries or are we happy with the way things are?

Isn't this small island a very big prison at times?

Am i being defensive? What is there to defend?

i'm baaaaaaaaaaack! (Oh Yeah and a brief comment on the "Girls Gone Wild" video)

Well the call-in programmes were apparently ablaze with moral outrage after Lil Rick's Girls Gone Wild video aired on local TV. Luckily my allergy to call-in programmes kept me away from it all. I have, however, been reading electronic message boards and as many of the youtube comments as my sensitive stomach could stand. Opinions seem split between those who thinks it's degrading to women and those who view the video as some national symbol of local ingenuity and pride. While i recognise that by now everybody has forgotten about the video and are busy talking about the next threat to public morals i'll go ahead and give my opinion anyway because this is my comeback post!!!

There is something about the video that i find unsettling. And its not the wukking-up. i too enjoy a good (or bad) wuk up myself.

i love the lil rick song. It's a great celebration of female sexuality and of the way in which women enjoy themselves and their bodies and of how the popularity of these soca tunes depends on female approval. So just how did the song go from all that to lazy stock images filtered through a male gaze? And just where does all of the nationalist imagery fit in this made-for-tv male fantasy?

Well, if you happen to stumble across this page let me now what you think of the video.

Goodbyes

this may very well be my last post.

i've found new avenues for my writing, what is known in universityspeak as "coursework", and having the good fortune of being a fulltime student with a fulltime job and a lil side hustle has left me dog-tired- too tired to be depressed, too tired to even write about being depressed if i were.

So no more sleep-inducing jeremiads from me about just how sorry i feel for myself. Right now i am happy- an emotion i have always distrusted but i'm enjoying it and not looking back.

If at any point should this tenuous grip i have on happiness, hope and sanity slip away i shall be back for more public brooding.

In the meantime i'm working on keeping my grades up, trying to write creatively again and discovering that life can be wonderful and beautiful after all when you learn (or endeavour to learn) to accept and celebrate self.

Kinda on vacation

i'll be travelling so i probably won't update the blog until end of September, all depends on my access to the internet and actually having something to say ;)