Dear Editor,
Imagine two local St. Martin grandmothers sitting at the St Martin’s home for the elderly. They have worked hard and are enjoying the last days of their lives. They bore many children, who in turn bore grandchildren, who are also today bearing their great-grandchildren. So much has changed since they were thrown into life in the 1920s; one in Simpson Bay and the other in Middle Region. Today, they are called local St. Martiners, to distinguish them from the many other ethnic groups that reside on the island. Back then they were just St. Martiners. Others were from St. Kitts, Statia, Saba, Dominica, Anguilla, etc. In their youth there were no hotels; no cars; no telephone; no electricity. In our terms, their St. Martin was simple.
The stuff romantics write about. They are, however, not nostalgic. For the most part they are content with all the modern conveniences. Their children can reach them at a dial of a button; no matter where they are located on God’s earth. What’s more, they are happy because the “Wrong” that characterized sweet St. Martin is no more. They never speak about the “Wrong”. It is better for the getting along that they “forget” how to speak about the “Wrong”, knowing that they cannot really ever fully forget it in heart or mind. It seems to be working, as all locals including their grandchildren get along regardless of their ancestral stock. The inequalities, in terms of who has more “pocket change” and buildings and land, are still there but there is communion that shines through the differences of complexions. The Prime Minister is a black man; the head of the opposition is beige, but he has children and his wife who are brown. The former Prime Minister has the colour of his children. This is St. Martin today; not perfect, but getting better.
These days, however, with all this TV, CNN, NBC and BET, and what have you – that they all watch and hear about on the radio – the “Wrong” seems to be growing stronger in the USA. They understand that Black Lives Matter, because justice matters for all, but It terrifies them (and they lament that one thing that has not changed is that it is primarily those with an overdose of testosterone who also imbibe the idea of racial superiority and inferiority that continue to spoil the world). They are afraid for their children and grandchildren.
You see, whilst growing up in what is referred to as Sweet St. Martin, the racial “thang” was considered normal – you could derogatively call dark brown St. Martiners “nigga” without twitching; but, things weren’t always black and white. When the blood of men journeyed to the middle section of their bodies, which happened regularly, the colour barrier was breached when no one was looking and the moon and the bushes kept secrets. Those who had a chocolate grandmother, but carried the pinkish complexion of their fathers’ people, did their utmost to distance themselves from the brown working poor. It is this, which has created today, the situation that when you scratch a little deeper than the surface you find out that all local St. Martiners are related in one way or the other.
So too are the two old grandmothers. They stare at the photos of their grandsons; one the colour of straw with hair that resembles National Geographic renditions of the Sahara desert; the other Mahogany with a head full of tiny corkscrew curls that judges of the Guinness Book of Records will find impossible to count. What will become of them? Will they fight like Cain and Abel, like the White and Black Americans, or will they create a language of critical understanding to right the “Wrong”?
Time will tell, but they are hopefully reading in the newspapers that the University of St. Martin is organizing a town hall meeting on July19, where their children and grandchildren are invited to speak about Alton Sterling and connect this to Mitchell Henriquez, Terrance Briscoe, Norbert Mestenapeo, or the many unnamed slain men and women in India, Palestine, Kenya and other parts of the world without hate. Without undoing the fragile peace and getting along that they have been able to build up. They hope you will accept the invitation to discuss Black Lives Matter, St. Martin style.
Dr. Francio Guadeloupe, President of the University of St. Martin (USM)
Dr. Natasha Gittens, Director of SCELL-USM
Ms. Wendie Brown, Division Head of the Business Management Programs, USM
Mr. Josue Ferrol, Coordinator of the pre-USM program, USM
Mr. Pedro de Weever, Editor of the Commentaries Journal, USM
