For many 2020 voters of Presidential candidate Joe Biden and Vice-Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, their historic electoral win would symbolize a drastic change from the vituperative language and callous policies that came to define the chaotic and destructive Trump years. Whether it was the Trump administration’s criminalization of asylum seekers, separation of mother and child at the border through their cruel “zero tolerance” strategy, reduction in refugee resettlement, or use of xenophobic rhetoric before racializing a viral disease like COVID-19 that would stoke rampant Sinophobia, a more “compassionate” approach was promised by his would-be successors. However, as the late journalist . . .
Caribbean
Reject Statehood for Puerto Rico
The island of Puerto Rico has been under the direct control of a foreign power for over 400 years. Puerto Ricans have seen their freedoms violently stripped away and their natural resources privatized, yet in the face of this brutal colonization, Puerto Rico is still left standing, flag waving proudly , screaming, “¡VIVE PUERTO RICO LIBRE!”. As Puerto Rico continues to feel the brunt of frequent climate disasters, we must debunk the lie that further colonization through statehood would provide more liberties, aid, or protections from the United States. To suggest that statehood would create these securities is not only . . .
Trinidad and Tobago: Still On Di Road
Transcript Salifu: So yeah, Shaun, I’m very excited to have you here to talk about a lot of the recent developments in the Caribbean. I know we’ve talked, ahead of this, that we wanna talk about foreign meddling, we wanna talk about some of the organizing that’s going on in the region where you are in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago. But before we get into all of that, I figured it would be interesting, at least for me, ‘cause I’ve listened to you talk in other places quite a bit, but I’m curious to know about younger you. I . . .
Defending Our Americas: A Syllabus
What does it mean to defend our Americas? For the Black Alliance for Peace, defending our Americas begins with a re-drawing of the map of the Americas. No longer can the United States stand at the center of the hemisphere, upholding an eternal whiteness while imposing a suffocating capitalism. Instead, for BAP, Haiti is the center of the Americas. Solidarity with Haiti is key to the defense of the Americas. Haiti endures the original territory of Black emancipation from slavery, of Black independence from colonialism, and Black resistance to racism and global capitalism. Yet Haiti has also become the region’s . . .
The Empire’s “Front Yard” and the Monroe Doctrine
We used to talk about, when I was a kid in college, about “America’s backyard.” It’s not America’s backyard. Everything south of the Mexican border is America’s front yard. And we’re equal people. We don’t dictate what happens in any other part of that — of this continent or the South American continent. We have to work very hard on it. But the trouble is: we’re having great difficulty making up for the mistakes that were made the last four years, and it’s going to take some time. Remarks by President Biden in Press Conference JANUARY 19, 2022 The claims . . .
NATO’s Warmongering Voice in The Caribbean
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Sir Ron Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the US and the OAS, has emerged as one of the most strident Caribbean voices in favour of US/NATO warmongering in eastern Europe. He is widely considered to have played a pivotal role in dragging CARICOM countries into their shameful support for the one sided United States/NATO resolution in the United Nations General Assembly on 1 March which pinned all the blame for the war in Ukraine on Russia and painted the US and its NATO followers as completely blameless. The resolution failed to . . .
Britain’s Legacy of Brutal Slavery in Barbados
Yes, the British Empire is indeed one colony smaller as Barbados formally declared itself independent of its colonial rulers after 400 years yesterday in a big ole fancy ceremony attended by all kinds of dignitaries. England’s Prince Charles delivered a message from his mother, Queen Elizabeth, conveying the “warmest good wishes” and said, “from the darkest days of our past and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which, whatever stains out of his study, the people of this island forge their path with extraordinary fortitude.” It’s nice that he mentioned that appalling history of slavery, but it deserves more than a . . .
The Responsibilities of Caribbean Intellectuals
Aaron Kamugisha is Professor of Caribbean and Africana Thought at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus The tradition of Caribbean intelligentsia insists on a grounding with the masses against the elites. What then are the responsibilities of Caribbean intellectuals? I draw my definition/sense of the intellectual here from figures as diverse as Antonio Gramsci, Edward Said, Claudia Jones and Audre Lorde. For the purposes of this essay I am twinning the thought of George Lamming and Walter Rodney – specifically Lamming’s succinct description of an intellectual as someone whose fundamental orientation is a life of the mind, . . .