African descendants in Guyana recently celebrated another year of emancipation from the heinous system of enslavement our ancestors were trapped under. This annual celebration is a reminder of not only how far we have come as a people brought to these shores in chains, but also an indicator of the past and present belief systems that contributed towards it in the first place.
Today, we are said to live in a post-colonial society, one in which we are way past the excesses of colonialism, and are now existing in a space where everyone is afforded the same opportunities regardless of their race. It is a disingenuous position to take, one that is also very dangerous as it allows those with privilege and power to ignore the vast inequalities that exist, and frame these inequalities as being an individual or collective ethnic problem. This is a position that is particularly taken, and solidified in countries such as Guyana where we do not have a strict Black-White dynamic.
