S. Henry: “Someone should be removed all together or sent to Monkey Mountain. I believe that’s the place that police officers who are errant are sent to.” These words, related to last Tuesday’s action against protestors, have been attributed to AFC’s Raphael Trotman. I am disturbed that Mr. Trotman could seek to banish errant police officers to Monkey Mountain.Why Monkey Mountain? The connotation behind this utterance is that Monkey Mountain is a forbidden, alien place that would be undesirable to inhabit. What Mr. Trotman does not know is that this statement sends a message to the Amerindian people of the area and other Amerindian areas that our villages, lands and people are inferior.
Mr. Trotman does not know of the Amerindian social insecurities in Guyana and will probably not be able to fathom that statements like these hit us hard psychologically. What a paradox that the AFC got its seat from the very region that Monkey Mountain is in. As Amerindians, the coastlanders always refer to our lands as uncivilized, ancient and when they need to insult each other they use the word ‘buck’ which seeks to imply backwardness or even, stupidity.
Our existence in the city is filled with this verbal abuse from children to adults, uneducated to educated, when will it end?
Freddie Kissoon is also guilty of this psychological abuse by seeking to banish his adversary to Monkey Mountain. Is this intellectual racism?
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