By Johnny Coomansingh
On the dustjacket of his book titled: Power Speech: the Quickest Route to Personal and Business Success, Roy Alexander quoted the Shakespearean line, “Mend your speech a little, lest you may mar your fortunes.” Shakespeare could have said anything he wanted—rhetoric! Apparently, it is unclear who said “Fortune favors the brave…,” but many sources attribute the statement to Publius Terentius Afer, (aka Terence) a Roman playwright who lived circa 190-159 BC. Regardless of who said what, the adage is still in use today primarily as a verbal spur. However, if there isn’t any fortune to safeguard or to worry about, should I still be apprehensive about making utterances that stimulate the process of freedom?
Many scholars, especially those who were born into wealth, those of the so-called superior race, caste, or class may want to advocate that freedom is all but a state of mind, and it is a perception, a philosophical element, and it is relative, and it depends on the circumstances, and of course the environment. Such individuals, repeat time and again, all the hogwash and slough that goes with the genesis and interpretation of a word. Not stopping there, they push the envelope until their ideology and interpretation become, as we sometimes say, ‘bible;’ the rule of thumb.
On the other hand, there are those who are in such bondage, victims of derision, that they are not even vaguely aware of their condition. Scales, like a film of ignorance, cover their eyes. They have grown so accustomed and comfortable with the yoke, the shackles and the chains; the weights and manacles that keep them captive that they cannot in any moment of time recognize their destitute and deplorable condition. In other words, they agree with the statement, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
The others who are ‘in charge,’ yes, those who are in a position to alleviate the pressure and discomfort, to create freedom and to ease the loathsome burdens from off the shoulders of the masses clamour for more control. The same leaders, the ‘Snake Oil’ salesmen who begged and politically besieged the ‘poor’ masses for their votes, design and devise laws and institutions, regulations, spawn and uphold unwritten rules that foster greater oppression. Such people also use holy writ to accomplish their divisive and baneful purposes, and now there are wars all over the globe including devastating trade wars. Thousands are dying because of greed and inequality.
My submission here is about consciousness—people consciousness. This is not about white consciousness or red, yellow or black consciousness. It is about the maintenance of support for one another. It is about fostering the element of hope. It is about rekindling the fact that all of humankind are equal with the quantum effect of eliminating the concept of ‘minority status;’ it is about the invocation of the spirit of unity among all peoples. Now tell me, if I am permitted to digress, give me a reason, one simple and sound reason why Nelson Mandela had to spend 27 years in the Robyn Island prison. Who imprisoned him? Who was it that tried to shut him up?
In light of the aforementioned statements, must I remain silent? Must my tongue be bridled in the face of the atrocities, injustices and oppressive machinations meted out to defenceless people by those who claim to be ‘more equal?’ There are those of the human race who believe that ‘a still tongue keeps a wise head,’ and ‘silence is golden,’ and “boi, hush yuh mouth, dey go hear yuh.” I do not have a problem if some individuals prefer to shut up and stifle their voices.
In George Orwell’s text Animal Farm, it was Napoleon who said these words: “All pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than others.” With their lame and flagging tongues, such individuals will not utter a mumbling word to let the populace know that the demon of oppression and injustice is alive and well in this high-tech era. Fear stymies freedom; true freedom. Look at what Napoleon Bonaparte said: “The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people but because of the silence of good people.”
How can I stay silent in the face of crimes of hate committed by white supremacists against Native Americans, Mexicans, African Americans, and other non-white people residing in the United States of America? Not to mention the pressure on the aboriginal people (Anangu) of Australia. How can I stay silent when there is an unspoken fear, a frightening fear of the police in almost every community, and especially ‘black’ neighborhoods throughout the United States? How can I stay silent in the face of police brutality? How can I stay silent about Trayvon Martin and the horror of what happened in Ferguson, Missouri, North Charlotte, South Carolina, Jasper, Texas, and everywhere else in the United States?
How can I stay silent when innocent men, women and children (babies) are heartlessly and horribly murdered, (e.g. the Oklahoma bombing) by a ruthless killer? How can I stay silent when there is a deadly ‘World Series’ cricket match with nuclear forces between Pakistan and India? How can I stay silent when six and seven-year-old children weave rugs, build shoes, make bricks, stitch soccer balls, harvest vegetables and food crops, and cut sugar cane to support the giant economy of the United States?
How can I stay silent when non-white foreign visitors for no reason whatever (no, maybe skin color was a little too dark) were forcefully expelled from Walmart’s Hypermart in Kansas City-Missouri while white people drove around in their pickup trucks shouting racial slurs using the “N” word at them? Don’t doubt it for one moment! That scenario happened to my relatives and friends right there that night in Missouri. I was right there with them! It’s even worse now in the US.
How can I stay silent when bigoted politicians rob inner-city children of their funds? How can I stay silent when the Klu Klux Klan (KKK), neo-Nazis, and white supremacists are alive and kicking and congressmen turn a blind eye because their hands are tied behind their backs? How can I stay silent when there is the joke of ‘Affirmative Action’ and Equal Employment Opportunity?
How can I stay silent when it is highly apparent that being black-skinned seems to be a crime in the United States of America? It as though being black-skinned is a ticket to servitude and second-class status. Sidney Poitier was probably pretty lucky in the movie, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Sorry to say this, but during my sojourn in the United States of America (USA), I have observed that black-skinned people are still fighting for their freedom with their blood in America. Too many people are silent! It seems that even those of the “disinherited and oppressed” are not even willing to state their case. How can I stay silent?
In this day and age of modern technology, super satellite transmission, space science, artificial intelligence, public relations and improved communication, how could the USA be in such calamity? Calamity? What calamity? Probably I am losing my mind. The United States is in no calamity! The United States is too busy looking after how land should be divided in Israel and who should have what portion of the West Bank, Gaza, the Panama Canal, and Greenland—irony of ironies! And yet, “Mister Divider” why must Native Americans have to apply to Congress to buy back the lands their forefathers possessed before the arrival of the Judeo-Christian Europeans on the American landscape?
It is high time that the US start some soul searching, some deep introspection about how some ‘other’ people are treated in this country. Placing Band-Aid upon Band-Aid to cover a stinking, leaking, festering sore of injustice just will not do.
Forget the mote in the other person’s eye and remove the beam from your own eyes. Launching sorties, drones, and missiles against ‘enemies in the Middle East’ to break the monotony does more harm than good—the ‘wool pulling’ is too obvious. The central question is: Why should I keep silent when the truth must be disseminated?
Some people keep quiet as if someone told them to shut up. Such people have grown so accustomed to the yoke, the burden, the flagellation, the oppression and humiliation that they feel it is normal for them to be this way—to be treated as second and third-class status…yes, less than dogs! Yes, Harriet Tubman (1820-1930) was correct when she said: “I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew that they were slaves.”
I must reiterate as I said in my first book, Show me Equality (2010) that my tongue will not be circumcised, my voice will not stay in exile and silence and will not be a component of the fabric of my mentality, in light of the inequality that exists in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave and also in Trinidad and Tobago. In every facet of social life, the citizens of the so-called third, fourth, and fifth world countries seem to be suppressed, under some kind of economic siege or blight, a curse, if I may say—the yoke of oppression. Caribbean states (Small Island Developing States—SIDS) are always suffering economically and environmentally.
Tell me, how much money should citizens from such countries pay for a loaf of bread today? Everything in these countries are overpriced and the economists tell you that it is all about purchasing power parity (PPP) and all that economic jargon while the mass of people are living below the poverty line. This is the living truth! Truth will remain despite what some men do in their attempts to erase it.
If I speak not, if I bridle my tongue, if I remain a lingual cripple, if I refrain from re-establishing the citadel of truth, if I fail to promote and publish the politics of truth, if I simply keep quiet, then I would be doing nothing more than to dismantle the pedestal, the very foundations of truth, I will become one of those who not only maim but murder the innocent; nothing more than a damned professional liar!
It is high time that I shoulder my responsibility. It is high time to commence the process of reconciliation. It is high time to instigate the operation designed to demolish the psychological ‘Berlin Wall’ that separates the races. The clarion call goes out—it is high time that the peoples of these United States and the peoples of my own homeland (Trinidad and Tobago) settle their racial and ethnic differences; it is more than high time! Then I have no choice but to say as the prophet Isaiah, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression.” “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”
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