Amandala: Editorial
Belize’s dirty little secret
Belize has a dirty, dirty little secret. They don’t like black people in Belize. Oh sure, we in Belize have known about this prejudice for a long time, but in the region our “friends” don’t know about us. Our friends don’t know our dirty little secret, that we accept gay ships but we throw stowaway boys back on the ship that brought them, when these little boys are black.
In 75 years or so, Belize will be a part of Guatemala. Most of us who don’t like it, will try to leave. If you can’t, you will just have to take it or leave it. In fact, most of those Belizeans who got the sense have already left. Those who remain are those who are too young or too old to leave, or those of us who will fight or just don’t give a damn.
There are only two political parties in Belize that matter. The PUP was taken over by non-black elements in 1956, and the UDP followed, likewise, in 1983. Black people still make a lot of noise in Belize, but the noise is only loud: it says nothing.
In the 1950’s, the British and the Americans discovered oil in Belize, and at that point it became important to them, it appears, to transfer the majority blacks, who were relatively educated and troublesome, out of British Honduras. Hurricane Hattie in 1961 was the catalyst. British Hondurans were allowed to migrate freely to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and New Orleans once they had relatives in the States. The exodus of black Belizeans has not stopped since.
United Nations officials made the immigration decision for Belize, in the late 1970’s, to facilitate the entry and establishment of refugees from the Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemalan civil wars into Belize. Hondurans and Mexicans accompanied them. Very, very few of these Central American refugees were black. Thus, Belize became Belice, and when you dared to point this out, you were described as “racist.”
If this newspaper were in charge of Belize today, we would take 20,000 Haitian refugees and put them to live and farm on our western border. This will never happen, although only Belize and Guyana in CARICOM have land available to accept any refugees. It will never happen, because they don’t like black people in Belize. And Haitians are the blackest people in the Western Hemisphere.
Now the “they” in Belize who do not like black people, were themselves black 40 and 50 years ago, but they were trying their absolute darndest to be as brown as they could be. The brainwashing job done on British Hondurans by the white supremacist schools, beginning in 1814, had been spectacularly successful. The very blackest of Belizeans refused to concede that they came from Africa. This is still true today, amongst the older folk. The mental liberation of young blacks in Belize has taken place since 1969, but now it’s too late.
Now amongst the Belizean browns themselves, there are maybe 5 per cent of these who can pass for white in the United States. More important, though, is the fact that the 45 per cent Belizean browns who cannot pass for white in the United States, will not be able to pass for white in Guatemala. In Guatemala, they don’t even like Indians, much less Africans.
The Opposition political party, which for decades has passed itself off as a party which was black when compared to the “Latin PUP”, is unable to endorse the teaching of African and Mayan studies in the schools of Belize. It is a fact that British and European histories have always been taught in the schools of Belize. These histories were white supremacist in concept, and contributed substantially to the obsession of British Hondurans with trying to be as white as they could possibly be. One of the major political parties, a party which has ruled Belize for two five-year terms in the last 20 years, finds itself unable to support the tiniest of attempts to reverse the brainwashing. Why is this so?
It is so because the people of this country were mis-educated over a period of almost 200 years. The blacks did not know that they were Africans, and the browns seriously believed that they were Europeans.
A Belizean Cabinet Minister who was attending an emergency meeting of CARICOM last week in Jamaica to consider the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, returned to Belize before the meeting concluded. If a life and death crisis did not suddenly develop for him in Belize, and this newspaper has no evidence to suggest any such crisis did develop, then the Belizean Cabinet Minister returned to Belize because he did not believe the crisis in Haiti was that important, and/or he believed that it was not relevant to Belize.
If this was how he was thinking, his thinking was not that much different from the thinking of most Belizeans. So you understand why such a Minister is such a successful politician: his thinking is the same as the thinking of most Belizeans. And politics is about numbers.
Yet, this Belizean newspaper, whose views do not represent the thinking of most Belizeans, is the leading newspaper in the nation of Belize. So that is a puzzle to us. Well, words are only noise, and they do not affect policy. So, we are allowed the words. The policy remains.
The dirty little secret remains. They do not like black people in Belize. There is no one who can deny that any more. “If any, speak, for him have I offended.”
Belize’s dirty little secret
Belize has a dirty, dirty little secret. They don’t like black people in Belize. Oh sure, we in Belize have known about this prejudice for a long time, but in the region our “friends” don’t know about us. Our friends don’t know our dirty little secret, that we accept gay ships but we throw stowaway boys back on the ship that brought them, when these little boys are black.
In 75 years or so, Belize will be a part of Guatemala. Most of us who don’t like it, will try to leave. If you can’t, you will just have to take it or leave it. In fact, most of those Belizeans who got the sense have already left. Those who remain are those who are too young or too old to leave, or those of us who will fight or just don’t give a damn.
There are only two political parties in Belize that matter. The PUP was taken over by non-black elements in 1956, and the UDP followed, likewise, in 1983. Black people still make a lot of noise in Belize, but the noise is only loud: it says nothing.
In the 1950’s, the British and the Americans discovered oil in Belize, and at that point it became important to them, it appears, to transfer the majority blacks, who were relatively educated and troublesome, out of British Honduras. Hurricane Hattie in 1961 was the catalyst. British Hondurans were allowed to migrate freely to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and New Orleans once they had relatives in the States. The exodus of black Belizeans has not stopped since.
United Nations officials made the immigration decision for Belize, in the late 1970’s, to facilitate the entry and establishment of refugees from the Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemalan civil wars into Belize. Hondurans and Mexicans accompanied them. Very, very few of these Central American refugees were black. Thus, Belize became Belice, and when you dared to point this out, you were described as “racist.”
If this newspaper were in charge of Belize today, we would take 20,000 Haitian refugees and put them to live and farm on our western border. This will never happen, although only Belize and Guyana in CARICOM have land available to accept any refugees. It will never happen, because they don’t like black people in Belize. And Haitians are the blackest people in the Western Hemisphere.
Now the “they” in Belize who do not like black people, were themselves black 40 and 50 years ago, but they were trying their absolute darndest to be as brown as they could be. The brainwashing job done on British Hondurans by the white supremacist schools, beginning in 1814, had been spectacularly successful. The very blackest of Belizeans refused to concede that they came from Africa. This is still true today, amongst the older folk. The mental liberation of young blacks in Belize has taken place since 1969, but now it’s too late.
Now amongst the Belizean browns themselves, there are maybe 5 per cent of these who can pass for white in the United States. More important, though, is the fact that the 45 per cent Belizean browns who cannot pass for white in the United States, will not be able to pass for white in Guatemala. In Guatemala, they don’t even like Indians, much less Africans.
The Opposition political party, which for decades has passed itself off as a party which was black when compared to the “Latin PUP”, is unable to endorse the teaching of African and Mayan studies in the schools of Belize. It is a fact that British and European histories have always been taught in the schools of Belize. These histories were white supremacist in concept, and contributed substantially to the obsession of British Hondurans with trying to be as white as they could possibly be. One of the major political parties, a party which has ruled Belize for two five-year terms in the last 20 years, finds itself unable to support the tiniest of attempts to reverse the brainwashing. Why is this so?
It is so because the people of this country were mis-educated over a period of almost 200 years. The blacks did not know that they were Africans, and the browns seriously believed that they were Europeans.
A Belizean Cabinet Minister who was attending an emergency meeting of CARICOM last week in Jamaica to consider the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, returned to Belize before the meeting concluded. If a life and death crisis did not suddenly develop for him in Belize, and this newspaper has no evidence to suggest any such crisis did develop, then the Belizean Cabinet Minister returned to Belize because he did not believe the crisis in Haiti was that important, and/or he believed that it was not relevant to Belize.
If this was how he was thinking, his thinking was not that much different from the thinking of most Belizeans. So you understand why such a Minister is such a successful politician: his thinking is the same as the thinking of most Belizeans. And politics is about numbers.
Yet, this Belizean newspaper, whose views do not represent the thinking of most Belizeans, is the leading newspaper in the nation of Belize. So that is a puzzle to us. Well, words are only noise, and they do not affect policy. So, we are allowed the words. The policy remains.
The dirty little secret remains. They do not like black people in Belize. There is no one who can deny that any more. “If any, speak, for him have I offended.”
