On Blacks in Uniform

by Nicolette Bethel

Just recently I had the privilege to spend considerable time visiting Paradise Island. In part, this was because I had several friends and acquaintances in town, and one of the sightseeing must-dos is to show them around Atlantis, as far as possible. In part, it was because of meetings that took place there over an extended period of time.

I have to say that I travelled there without much of a second thought. This occurred to the wonder of some of my friends, who asked me whether I needed my passport to go there. I told them I didn’t need anything except to toss one dollar of my money into the till at the tollgate. (Ministry of Tourism officials, I learned, are provided with passes, which probably means that the government puts its money directly into the tollgate. I don’t know where that money goes. Perhaps it goes back to the government, which would defeat the purpose of my putting the dollar in – but never mind that.)

There was the fact that in some places in the hotel my husband and I were asked for our room key or fat wads of our cash. As far as that goes, that’s fair enough; it’s the people hotel after all, and they have the right to charge for certain privileges. What you don’t pay for on the swings you’ll spend on the merry-go-round. No; within the confines of the four hundred walls of Atlantis, that’s fair enough.

I didn’t need a passport. Most of the time I wasn’t going to Atlantis, or to Kerzner land at all. But what interested me was what I saw in the open air. Other people, especially those who worked there, needed a passport of sorts.

Before I elaborate, let me explain a little about Paradise Island, which was the site of my recreation when I was a child. I grew up in the east of the island, and after the weather got warm my friends and I spent our free time on Cabbage Beach and wandering around Paradise like bands of bush urchins in our various brownnesses. When I was growing up, P.I. was mostly pine forest and mysterious trails leading off towards beaches and revelation (or, if you like, towards the beach facing Athol Island or towards the Holiday Inn). Now it’s a bustling city-unto-itself.

Oh, people live there. It’s not all Atlantis. There are apartments and luxury homes all along the roads and side roads to the east. Kerzner has not got hold of every acre yet. But what struck me about most of the faces that I saw there, on Kerzner land and off, was this: either they were white, or they were black – and uniformed.

I can hear you now. “That’s not unusual,” you’re protesting. “They work for people over there, and they have to wear uniforms as part of their work.” Or you’re saying, “Most service industries require their staff to wear uniforms or identifying clothing.” And you’re right, of course. Uniforms are both necessary and helpful; they instil pride in one’s position, they instil confidence among the clientele, and they may even be aesthetically pleasing overall.

It’s not the fact that people are required to wear uniforms on Paradise Island that piqued my interest enough to write an article about it. I get the concept of uniforms, and I even like it in certain times and places. No; what arrested me was the fact that virtually the only black people I saw loose on Paradise Island – not driving cars, or sitting eating in the Hurricane Hole plaza, or behind the counters in Marina Village – were uniformed. Almost all the other faces were white.

I can only presume that there’s something very comforting about black people in uniform. Uniforms make black faces look as though they fit in. They allow for categorization, and for control; each uniform tells you where this person is supposed to be, and who’s responsible for this person. All very comforting indeed.

And all very odd, to my mind, in a country which gained majority rule without bloodshed, under the leadership of a party who stood for the achievement of equality for all Bahamians, regardless of the colours of their faces. Because the relegating to the black face to its appearance above a uniform smacks to me of a structure of class and race that Majority Rule was supposed to dismantle. It makes me think of slavery, of course; but to make that comparison is too facile and too expected for my main point. What it really suggests to me is that we have moved from an era where black faces were confined to uniforms because they were considered inferior to an era where black faces are confined to uniforms because it’s better for the bottom line.

And it seems supremely odd that we appear to have no collective discomfort about this fact. Rather, we seem to be embracing it, welcoming investors who will replicate the “success” of Kerzner and Paradise Island, and spreading it all around this archipelago of ours. It seems crucially odd to me that we have had no true discussion of the implications of what I noticed on Paradise Island – implications that suggest that it’s all right for us Bahamians, particularly (but not exclusively) Black Bahamians, to be considered so out of place in our own country that we are expected to be uniformed to move freely around it.

And it seems entirely odd that our governments – black, educated, wealthy, and stuffed with people of good conscience – have no problem with the concept at all.

Perhaps we are all, fundamentally, prostitutes. If what it takes to provide jobs and “development” and a better performance on the tourist charts and money and children in private schools, then so be it.

But I’m left very uneasy. History shows very clearly what the love of profit can breed. So I wonder. Is the phenomenon of blacks in uniform all that different from the past we thought that January 10, 1967 was supposed to erase? And by acknowledging the profit inherent in the practice, are we all that very different from the West African coastal businessmen who sold their people to slavers in exchange for guns and rum and cold, hard cash?

Comments

[drew Roberts]

Nico,

I think you may be commenting on the wrong thing. perhaps not, it is hard to tell.

The thing is, "race" is, for many of us, a visual thing and thus "in our face."

Can you give a break down for the whites you saw as to how many were foreign versus how many local?

Can you give a break down as to the wealth of all those you saw?

Can you give a break down as to who were residents and who were visitors?

So many things are harder to distinguish just walking about and those things could just as easily supply a better answer to your questions.

As a white (this is generally accepted if not scientifically proven) Bahamian, I can tell you that in many situations here in my own country, I am assumed to be a foreigh visitor because of the colour of my skin.

We just seem to develop these built in rules of thumb. Rules of thumb in life are often helpful, but they do come with a price to pay.

all the best,

drew

(+1)/10 to email me.

[nicob]

Drew, good comments. Here's my attempt to answer them.

My point is a complex one, and I appreciate -- and even agree with, to some degree -- all of yours. I may be missing the point, or I may be illustrating only one part of the problem. What I'm trying to get at, though, is multi-layered, and has links to a debate started in the newspapers by Keith Russell and participated in by people like Felix Moss, Helen Klonaris, and others. There's also an interesting discussion at http://nalohopkinson.blogspot.com/2006/02/surfaced-on-break-from-rewriting-and.html which may seem irrelevant to this one here but which isn't so far off. My thoughts were as follows.

1) The mega-resort -- Atlantis and its ilk -- are economically beneficial to Bahamians on the surface, but I believe that they may be damaging in ways that are far less tangible and far more enduring than monetary gain.

2) These affect all Bahamians, black and white, but visibly black Bahamians are affected more. In this scenario, someone with my complexion is less affected than someone considerably darker than I am. All Bahamians are effectively excluded from the resorts. All Bahamians are restricted from walking on land that is technically theirs. That was the point of my inclusion of myself and my childhood in the discussion above. The same will doubtless hold true for many white Bahamians (and some Bahamians of colour too) for whom Rose Island was "theirs", and it held true for Guana Cay as well.

3) What concerns me about this state of affairs is that our governments, which represent us all, appear to be oblivious of the potential problems caused by such mega-resorts. I am deeply concerned about the policy of establishing a major property on every island. Each such property doesn't only bring jobs and money into the country; it brings a completely different social structure, and it changes the relationship between generally independent Bahamians and the world. Instead of having an interaction that can be fairly equal -- because Family Islanders are cash-poor that doesn't mean they aren't wealthy; when they own most of the land around them, and can survive off that, that is a kind of wealth that is rare in this world, and growing rarer by the minute -- the interation becomes hugely unequal. When the richest and most powerful people in the world move in next door -- and worse, begin to affect national policy -- that is a relationship that has more potential for destroying than it has for building up. And what really concerns me is that the more remote the island, the more exclusive the property. In a few years we will have changed our country, which was unique in the developing world, with an economy that was relatively evenly spread, with a fairly narrow gap between rich and poor, into a typical third-world scenario, with mostly white foreign people possessing all the money and mostly black local people serving them.

4) The problem isn't visible with white Bahamians, though it's just as real. But it's visible with black Bahamians. I saw white people walking around on PI (I'm excluding the Fast Ferries and the Harbourfront areas from this paradigm, by the way). They may have been Bahamian; I didn't stop to ask. I suspected that they weren't, simply because I'm prejudiced that way. The point was that I didn't see any black people walking along the road that goes towards the Cloisters, or exercising their dogs near the golf course, or what-have-you. I saw plenty of black people on the road that used to head to the Casino and the Grand, which is now going to end up in some new Atlantis erection. They were all dressed up as servants and workers.

So my point wasn't to ignore the things you point out. My point was to illustrate the painfully obvious -- that in a mostly black nation, the only black faces I saw on PI were uniformed. To me, that's the tip of the iceberg.

It's also a warning -- because this state of affairs appears to Be Just Fine with our governments, no matter which party happens to run them. And it doesn't affect only people who are visibly black. It affects us all.

[thank you]

dr. b you give more credence to the old adage money isnt everything and you have reinforced your essay's premise. If only the gov't was listening...

[Interested]

This is a very powerful article. Your reply to the comment is even more powerful.

Your message is one that I personally have privately conveyed to others and which I am sure the powers that be are aware of, yet they persist in a misguided policy and formula for developing the Country.

Your ideas are much the same as espoused on another blog site I have encountered run by some who call themselves "The Bloggy Boyz" www.bahamian.ebloggy.com

Your comments are truly insightful and as one of the thousands of those who make up the "Brain Drain" problem of the Bahamas I can only hope that something happens to allow Bahamian talent where ever it sits to be harnessed to assist the Bahamas in truly productive development before the Country reaches the bottom of its steep decline.

When thousands of wealthy second home owners open their mouths and wallets to protect what they see as their economic interests, who will really be running the Country? ....or maybe this will be good for the Bahamas since Bahamians may not be able to influence their own Goverment to go whats right? ....A very interesting scenerio ...but anyway thanks for the article.

[drew Roberts]

Nico,

I was not in any way trying to say that there cannot be problems with what you observed, just wondering if race was indeed the key issue.

Personally, I think we should not be selling Government land to anyone but Bahamians. (At least not without out some serious debate and pretty much universal consensus.)

Private land is a different matter. (And another debate.)

One of my big problems is that while they want to attract outside investors, they still will not set us Bahamians free to go invest in other people's countries.

There is no question that bringing the world's wealthy here is a two edged sword and there has certainly not been enough public debate on the two edges. There are certainly some big downsides to doing so which need to be explored. These downsides are in my opinion made worse by the point I made just above.

I wish I had time now to address your points, but time is short. I will try and come back later to do so.

all the best,

drew

[bahamianworldcitizen]

These ideas have been argued by 'critical race theorists'. African American academics argue the detrimental effect of Black children seeing other Black people in uniforms not business suits. Case in point is Washington, DC. You will see more Black and Hispanics cleaning the Whitehouse, than sitting in offices. As for the White Bahamian being mistaken for a tourist. This furthers the critique- White people are supposed to be tourists and Black people are supposed to be working to serve the tourists. I personally like watching the African American honey mooners at Paradise Island. You are likely to hear, 'honey, why do they keep asking me to show my bracelet??'

[Firestarter]

I agree with you entirely.I'd also add that what's the point of "children in private schools" -- in other words, young people accessing what is arguably, a superior education -- if the home enviroment and the larger national atmosphere is highly anti-intellectual and pro-service industry, largely unskilled jobs? In fact, what *is* the point of education in such a place at all?

Regarding what you said about not seeing black Bahamians enjoying PI; I agree that this is because PI is seen as a place that caters for white tourists and that black Bahamians are not really welcome there. I would add, though that possibly, for reasons both good and bad, many Bahamians practice what amounts to a certain level of self-segregation.

However, (maybe on an unrelated note) part of my problem with PI is that apart from showcasing a new low of racially-charged capitalism, the space is unbearably tacky, pretentious and bland and completely lacks genuine atmosphere or individuality. It's a sort of expensive mall for innocuous, forgettable holidays.

I'm afraid I don't entirely see the validity of some of Drew's points. I see the sense in her point that focusing on the absence of black Bahamians enjoying PI leaves out the possibility that white Bahamians might actually be strolling about there; however as someone above pointed out, the possibility of white Bahamians "blending in" as it were, amongst the tourists only reinforces your basic idea that social relations in the country are being increasingly and disturbingly divided along racial lines.

Moreover, I'm not sure I quite get what her point about the "break down as to the wealth of all those you saw" was about. Anyway, as far as I can interpret it, I'm against its implication. Most of the tourists here are American; thus, despite the problems that that country faces, I think we can safely say that whether or not they take advantage of the opportunities available to them, most of the visitors have access to excellent state and out-of-state universities and colleges, and depending on the city, well-equipped public library systems, museums, cultural festivals etc as well as varied job opportunities. If Drew meant to imply that Bahamian tourism is not that bad a thing because it creates a chance of equality of income between guests and tourist workers, I'd argue, hell, no. Why focus on relative incomes, when most of the tourists have access to educational, cultural and employment options that the people who wait on them do NOT?

Anyway, good for you, Ms. Bethel for providing this thoughtful and thought-provoking site.

[Economist]

I would just like to understand how the Bahamas a so described "developing 3rd world nation" by Ms Bethel can stop the intellecual flight of its most talented and gifted people to the U.S., Canada, and England without development to create positions of employment for these individuals? How does the Bahamas protect its most important asset the brightest Bahamians and not land, or other intangible assets, with out Foreign investment in large projects? How do you explain to the hard working people on the family islands that when a relatively small parcel of land would improve the prosperity of their family dramatically? The Bahamian Charter Boat captain in the family islands does not where a uniform and his repeat customers Black, white, Asian or otherwise pay him for his skills not his uniform or color.

[nicob]

Why should foreign investment be the only way we can build our nation? Most developed nations built themselves by local investment; foreign investment extend webs of dependency and limit the self-determination of citizens. What current project of foreign investment is going to stop the intellectual flight of the most gifted of us? How many of the mega-projects we currently tout are providing employment for those Bahamians currently earning BAs, MAs and PhDs? That is not the kind of jobs these investments produce; rather, they provide jobs for people who report to other (foreign) people on a daily basis — and therefore will do nothing whatsoever to stop the intellectual flight.