La Representación Amable de Segregación Racial

It is as if every week, some member of this “village idiot”  government makes  their commitment to contract athlete’s foot in the far reaches of their tonsils public. Maybe it is not so innocent, maybe it is the case of the monkey that  is climbing so high that it exposes itself as a political ass.(that word is in the Bible so it is not a swear word).  Now, this latest racial profanity from the mouth of this Government really is as alarming as the unnerving  thoughts we had when we thought after the police death squad scare that it could not possibly get worse. But those are famous last words because just when we thought this was the “grumsy” bottom, the UDP government politely stopped and cuss we “wussara”. They went old-school on us to tar and feather us with another telling assault on the socio-political balance of Belize. Did you hear wat di man seh boss? Say it ain’t so, please.

We heard the Minister of Tourism defending “deportation” of Belizeans within Belize, particularly the black one dehn. Wat???? Now, the Peoples United Party has condemned this obviously insensitive remark, and the entire country sings the same pitch of “we shall overcome”. To support the deep seated racial foulness in this remark by attacking the messenger castigating it, is to adapt the statement yourself. It is offensive to all Belizeans. Plain and simple. Agents of this neo-apartheid movement must be driven out as tyrants and be made to run alongside the despots as they flee.

But this is Belize and we, as a stubbornly Christian nation, believe in the redeeming quality of the human soul. So, well, we tapped our collective feet and held our chins in the palms of our hands waiting for an apology or explanation. But what we got on March 23,2010 from “Junie” was no apology, not even of “sorts”, it was a declaration of regret that he is prevented by such trivial menaces as human rights and dehn kinna ting deh, from implementing draconian measures in his unholy campaign.  Big and serious! The man, in a very nice way of course,  said ““Well definitely I have to be very honest. Like what I said in San Pedro, it is indeed a fact. Probably I offended somebody but it did have a very positive effect.“

What in Hades did he say? A fact? What fact? The fact that San Pedro needs to purge itself of black strays?  Sound like he was standing behind his buffoonery, while boasting, politely of course, that this is a racial “fact”.

Are we living in 1950 South Africa? South Africa,  like Belize,  is a country blessed with an abundance of natural resources including fertile farmlands and unique mineral resources. This country was colonized by the English and Dutch in the seventeenth century. Sometime in the 60’s, a plan of “Grand Apartheid” was executed, emphasizing territorial separation and police repression.

In 1951, the Bantu Authorities Act established a basis for  African reserves, known as “homelands.” These homelands were independent states to which each African was assigned by the government according to their record of origin. Africans living in the homelands needed passports to enter South Africa. The law branded them with the absurdity of being aliens in their own country.

It appears as though the Minister’s frustration of not having the mechanism to enforce his segregation policy could be relaxed if he requested that the legal draftsmen up in Belmopan assist him by reformulating and updating the very effective apartheid laws which formalized racial insularity and racial hatred in South Africa.

Maybe what he might be looking for is something like the Population Registration Act, Act No 30 of 1950 which led to the creation of a national register in which every person’s race was recorded. A Race Classification Board under the Department of Home Affairs (a government bureau) took the final decision on what a person’s race was in disputed cases. This law required that all South Africans be racially classified into one of three categories: white, black (African), or colored (of mixed decent). Classification into these categories was based on appearance, social acceptance, and descent.

Hey, friendly Manny, what about the Natives Laws Amendment Act of 1952 which narrowed the definition of the category of blacks who had the “privilege”, as you put it, of permanent residence in towns. Rewrite section 10 of that law which would restrict “desirables” to those who are born in San Pedro Town and live here continuously for not less than 15 years. For good measure, maybe-  in a genteel way of course – seeing you are nice; you could even throw in a law that says that a “creole” who has been employed out here continuously for at least 15 years, may be considered for residence in the new special enclave of San Pedro.

I know! I know!  How about reformatting the Natives (Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents) Act of 1952, otherwise known as the Pass Laws Act. This paradox of an act forced black people to carry slavery inspired identification documents which required black South Africans over the age of 16 to carry a pass book, known as a dompas, everywhere and at all times. You like that?

The dompas was more like a revocable “permit”. This “pass” included a photograph, details of place of origin, employment record, tax payments, and encounters with the police. It was a criminal offence to be unable to produce a pass when required to do so by the police. No black person could leave a rural area for an urban one without a permit from the local authorities.

And finally, would you consider pleasantly and in a hospitable way – of course – consider, giving those pesky “creoles” the gift of  The Native (Black) Urban Areas Act of 1923 which divided South Africa into ‘prescribed’ (urban) and ‘non-prescribed’ (rural) areas, and strictly controlled the movement of Black males between the two. Each local authority was made responsible for the Blacks in its area and ‘Native advisory boards’ were set up to regulate the inflow of Black workers and to order the removal of ’surplus’ Blacks i.e. those not  employed.

Don’t be lazy though Manny, there are 317 erotic templates of these systematic and institutionalized racist laws. Check em out. It may give you more ideas as to how to swat the konkas of creoles pitching on San Pedro.  Boy! Stop play, is it that black Belizeans will need a visa to go to La Isla Bonita?

Manny must be right though, in fact he has inspiration from the healthiest democracy in this hemisphere. No other than the mighty Uncle Sam, had state vagrancy statutes up until the 1970’s. Dixie States after the U.S. Civil War enacted Black Codes. These were a set of laws that sought to maintain white control over the movement of newly freed slaves between plantations.

And here I was thinking that there was something absurd in Manny’s suggestion of racial profiling and restriction of free movement of Belizeans within Belize. No, this is nothing new. We should not let that silly thing called human rights or Belizean patrimony get in the way. After all, he is saying that we, San Pedranos, support these kinds of policies, and that is why the UDP are so successful in the municipal and general elections. Is he saying that this is somewhere in the fine print of the UDP manifesto? It must be because the UDP Government is yet to distance itself from the natural implications of that bitterly racist slur.

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