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| "Is this all that man is capable of?" |
Youma told me that when she was watching the news the other day she learned that 80% of doctors in Martinique are white. This is disgusting considering that white people make up only 5% of the population here. We both put our elbows on the table, our head in our hands, and asked the space in between us how this could be possible. How is it that there are so many
noirs here with an education, with the right qualifications, with integrity... who are unemployed? How can it be possible that white people from the metropole can strut over here, flash their white face, their white collar, their white degree.. and be handed high paying jobs here?
I also want to add that I have not seen one black gendarme here. Not one. I asked Youma and Joby about this and they just said "yes, it's true. There are not many black gendarmes here." I asked them why they thought that was and all they said was: "colonialism." When I asked them if they thought the gendarmes were fair in their judgements and actions, they said, "yes. They do their job. They're fair-- but they're not one of us."
Wikipedia defines gendarmerie as such:
In comparison to civilian police forces, gendarmeries may provide a more disciplined force whose military capabilities (e.g., armored group in France with armored personnel carriers) make them more capable of dealing with armed groups and with all types of violence. On the other hand, the necessity of a more stringent selection process for military service, especially in terms of physical prowess and health, restricts the pool of potential recruits in comparison to those a civilian police force could select from.
It's no coincidence that those who are recruited "in terms of physical prowess and health" have white skin. It's no coincidence that white men have been taught to both desire and expect to hold positions of power over others. Likewise, it is
strategic that people of color here, especially those of African decent, have been put in positions of powerlessness, degraded for centuries, and taught to have low self-esteem. It is no coincidence that most, or dare I say all social, political, and economic structures are set up to empower those with white skin and therefore, dis-empower people of color -- Thereby, creating a place where 1 in 2 black Martinicans are unemployed while white folks from the metropole move here to buy million-euro mansions on the beach (or so Youma heard on the local news.)
The more I read, the more I see, the more I learn, the more truth I find in this commonly cited quote:
La colonisation, la traite négrière, l’esclavage et tous leurs corollaires (pillage, vol, viol, massacre, épuration ethnique, génocide, aliénation culturelle, domination économique, répression et éradication de toute contestation, racisme, soumission de la classe politique locale, ...) ont assuré et assurent encore aujourd’hui à la France ses richesses, sa puissance et son autorité.
Also, the more
I reflect, the more I realize that one could replace the word
"
France"
with "
Etats-Unis"
and the statement would still hold true. The history of these two nations is not identical, but there are so many commonalities in the methods of domination and of course, in the legacies of colonization. It's no wonder that the U.S. and France are such good buddies.
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"Struggle against oppression:
- Very little freedom
- No equality
- No fraternity." |
Also, why did I have to come here to start making these connections between race and occupations of power and prestige? Why did I never question my lack of education about the U.S. unincorporated organized territories? Why was I never disgusted and moved to action about this before? Oh yeah, because I wasn't paying attention-- just like I'd been taught in school, at home, in society, in my skin.
