Dear Editor,
I grew up in West Berbice at Blairmont Estate which is situated between Rosignol Village in the North and Ithaca Village in the South; the Estate was and still is populated predominantly by Guyanese of Indian descent while the population of the two villages is predominated by Guyanese of African descent; a significant portion of my school-mates were of the latter grouping.
I say with much pride and satisfaction that racial differences were of little, if any ,concern to us; we lived in peace and quiet and cared appropriately for each other as we played, studied and lived our lives un-perturbed by any perceived differences regarding our antecedents…..for me to think differently of Dolwin Anderson, Frank Dow and Ernestine Chapman with whom I shared the same school bench would be heretic now as it would have been then!
Why have we descended to such depths that we judge and sometimes dislike people purely because of the colour of their skin; below the skin we are all identical; the skin is merely superficial.
If we judge people only by the content of their character and their actions, the same way that we wish to be judged, then we will find it difficult to indulge in any form of racial prejudice.
Can we please try our best to do so!
Yours faithfully,
Nowrang Persaud
