FROM next year, March should be celebrated in Barbados as Local Whites Heritage Month, always remembering that during the 21st century, an intensive search was carried out for a missing white woman.
In the history of a country on the verge of celebrating 50 years of Independence, with the motto Pride And Industry, we showed our pride with people from all walks of life assisting in the intense search by hundreds of friends and relatives, police Special Services Unit, Barbados Defence Force, the Red Cross, volunteers and teams from some high-profile businesses – an exercise which was never done before for a black man.
It is rather a strange exercise that during the just completed Black History Month, black people were missing as recently as two weeks ago: for example, Shane Cumberbatch, of My Lord’s Hill St Michael. Instead of a similar intense searching for a black man, we learnt through print and electronic media that “police are also asking the public for assistance in locating Shane Cumberbatch of My Lord’s Hill, St Michael”.
What proved to be evident during the search were degrees of class prejudice and class distinction, where a watchman and NATION photographer, according to Press reports, were verbally abused by some members of the search party. I can only recall a joint search was carried by the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) and the Defence Force for a wanted man and not a missing person.
To the tune of Red Plastic Bag’s Ah Can’t Find Me Brother, the RBPF don’t have to seek assistance from the FBI, Scotland Yard or the Mounted Canadians. They have very competent investigators, detectives, and not defectives.
A thorough investigation should be carried out pertaining especially to the article which appeared on the Front Page of the March 3 DAILY NATION captioned: Buttals Watchman ‘Chased By Whites’.
The watchman, if he has ever read the book The Black Boy by Richard Wright, would never had shaken their hands. “All the these white folks dressed so fine their . . . holes smell just like mine.”
KEITH A WEEKES, JP
