community and racism

And so it is.

Last night a meeting was called so that a developer could present his plan to the local community.  His project would impact a local beach by diverting a road through his property, taking it away from its place next to the ocean.  The issue is thorny and i'm not getting into the nitty gritty details of all the whole sordid mess.

What i wanted to write about is two people, one a white woman and the other a black man, both of whom attended the same meeting last night, but came away with vastly different outcomes.  This story is about community and racism in that community.

Although it was a full moon, the sky was obliterated by thundershowers.  Most people arriving late had to make do with standing room only. The facility was overflowing, the rain was coming down in buckets and the attendees were antsy.  Keep in mind this is one of the few communities on the island where the out turn was a melting pot of young, old, black, white and in-between.

i’m the white woman and my impression of the evening was one of glee. So many had turned out on such a wet soggy night to listen to and discuss an issue that could impact beach usage permanently.  i was proud of our community, proud of the cohesiveness when the final vote was taken, and proud of all the people who took the time to voice their concerns.

As i was walking out a local West Indian friend stopped me to chat.  She told me she was worried that the Caucasians would vote in favor of the change but that she was so happy with the vote against it that her fears had been dissipated.  The final tally of the evening was all in attendance against and no one raising their hands to vote in favor of the road change.

Even after the meeting finished and i was able to talk with people of all shades of white and black the glow remained.  i was so thrilled that so many people were of one mind and were willing to fight this to the end. The community i have always loved came through.

This morning i got an e-mail with this story about the same meeting.

Before the meeting started, but in an area where it was standing room only, one white man who was agitating in favor of the project addressed a black man as “You People” while he was describing 20 years of business at Cane Bay.  He went on to accuse “You People” of leaving garbage on the beach that he and his workers that he hired cleaned up daily.  When asked who he meant by “You People” he went off and used the F word.

My friend was offended and rightly so.  He was there at a community meeting hoping to learn something and possibly contribute constructively to the conversation. “You People” most positively meant that black people and only black people were responsible for trash on the beach. 

Now as an aside we all know that is not so.  In fact the area of the beach that sees a lot of trash accumulating in front of the restaurant and especially on weekends is probably frequented more by whites than blacks.

To accuse one man and every other black person by association, just because he is black of wholesale littering is the epitome of racism.  Having grown up in the 50’s and 60’s on the continent my friend had been here before, but hadn’t expected it last night.  The altercation ruined his evening and he left with a bad taste in his mouth and a belief that this man was one small example of the attitude that would come as more developers tried to implement their idea of change on a small West Indian island.

So... here you have two completely different experiences at the same community meeting, one filled with joy and a feeling of connectedness with everyone and the other experiencing a racist, not for the first time and probably not the last either. Luckily i was informed of this on the day my blog comes out because it needs an airing.

It shouldn't be ignored and it should be discussed. Racism is a problem on St. Croix and it exists.

Being a strong man my friend is following up with a letter to the local newspaper exposing who and what this man is and rightly so.