My two children were born outside of the British Virgin Islands in places where their complexions stood out. One day while my daughter was just a few days old in the nursery, as I was making my way to visit her, someone said ‘there’s a pretty baby there and she must be yours’. The comment was not made because the person thought I was beautiful – it was because my daughter was more caramel than the other light-skinned babies. Her little curly locks were dark and shiny compared to her bald-headed neighbors. It never ran through my mind that the commenter may have been racist.

I look at the residents here in the Virgin Islands and in Tortola in particular. Compared to 20 years ago when I was still in High School, we have much more diverse ethnicities, religions and heritages. In more recent times, my visits to the clinic with my children showed that we are now a diverse population with children of Santo Domingan, Haitian, Asian, American, European and Caribbean descent as well as the physically and mentally challenged. My two children would reach and play with any of the children regardless of their look, accent or origin.

Very young children do not worry about the differences between themselves and others because they are not aware of prejudice. They just want to play and make friends. So why are adults so hung up on ensuring that there is a division among us? Are we fair to ourselves to spend so much time stuck in limited dimensions – especially when we are being negative?

If you hear the term ‘Black Love’, what comes to mind? One Tortolian young man answered “harmony, love and nostalgia”. A young American man of Caucasian descent said that the term ‘Black Love’ does not come across as racist to him. For me, ‘Black Love’ is about loving yourself – regardless of your race, ethnicity, religion, heritage or origin. The Callaloo Poets host their annual ‘Black Love’ ‘open mic’ reading in February which is celebrated as Black History Month and the month where Valentine’s Day falls - thus ‘Black Love‘. It is hard to conceive that some persons would take ‘poetic licence’ and think that the term is meant to be negative.

As a progressive people, we are to celebrate all that is good, all that is positive and all that is right. Knowing and loving your history and culture, does not make anyone a racist especially when we as humans can be more prejudiced against our very own than others. How many times have you heard from your own people, ‘where he think he going – always want to be in thing’ or comments along those lines?

Some of us know where we came from. To those who have yet to learn about their roots, it is time to use the internet more wisely for research. We all could also visit the elders and the library to strengthen our knowledge base. ‘Black Love’ is about you, me and the entire community. It is about us making positive change by taking action and setting the good examples for the youths to follow.

It is time for the positive minds in the Virgin Islands to show some real brotherly ‘Black Love’ by embracing our similarities, differences, our hopes and dreams of making the Virgin Islands a better place to live in.

Linette Rabsatt (Poet & Writer)

Share this story

---