Ok so, Im taking West Indian History this semester, and its such a different experience from what i was expecting. For one thing, i thought that it would be nothing more than a bunch of facts just thrown together, nothing emotional, concrete or detailed, but i’ve come to a rude awakening. The truth is, it has been quite the experience, but maybe i should start from the beginning. Ok, so i am St. Lucian, i have always been very content describing myself as nothing more or less than that, i always believed that saying i was west indian or st. lucian was enough. I never thought that saying that i was of African descent, or african american was ever important, and let me tell you why. I am from St. Lucia, my parents are lucian, one set of my grandparents are lucian, and the other are bajan, the truth is all  have known is the west indian culture, and the truth is, that is what i identify with the most. There is a vast difference between my values, and the values of the africans from who i descended. i always thought that overall the west indies have their own set of values, different from that of the americans to the north, the Spaniards to the west and south, we are our very own peoples. With our very own history and i always believed that i should embrace that first. And here is why, because the experience of the people who came to the west indies is very different from those who went to the mainland. And i love that. So i was sitting there in class, and i realized that there are some real issues with the way information is presented. Well i attended high school in the United States, and i had a very special world history teacher named Mr. Dillon, and Mr. D was British, but of Jamaican parentage, and the way h presented the “slavery” period to me was so special, because you see Mr. D had experienced it all racism on two continents, but he said no one has a right to stop him, and he will not let the white man fill his head with bullshit, all most every ancient society has experiment slavery adn they have gotten up and walked away from it, but the difference was that they found a really cool name and the stigma behind the enslavement was forgotten, but the African enslavement was a completely different thing, because these people had been brought to this new world, and they believed that they were entitled to the same rights and those who had fought to be here, and those who had brought them here for a specific purpose.

Now a days everyone is focused on celebrating diversity, and honestly, i think its just perpetuating the problems of this world even more, because you see it is diversity that brings about hatred, and separation, the truth is if we put aside the differences so much more could be achieved. yes this is very difficult feat because so many of us have such a hard time looking beyond the outside, or even what we are told about a group of people because that is the way society has kept us disenfranchised. If you look at two children of separate racial, socio-economic backgrounds, and you them in the same room, they will almost certainly become acquaintances. However, as those children are further socialized, i mean just by watching tv, if they are in japan, and one child is japanese and the other is west indian, eventually the question about their differences in looks will come up because in as much as we live in a “globalized” world, our entertainment, and everyday lives are still very much marginalized.

So what are we to do? Are we to not share our pasts with our children? Of course not, because you see it is when we dont share the lessons of the past with them that we end up in this mess in the first place. It is so clear that we dont care for each even in the way that now that there is a global financial crisis everyone has all of a sudden forgotten about unity and it is pretty much every man (nation) for himself. it's sadd but it also says something else, it says that we aren’t ready for the heaven that God wants to put us in. You see the pretentiousness that goes on everyday as we deal with some of the bigger issues, the way blacks would rather higher blacks, etc, because everyone holds on to the wrong part of our past you see we hold on to the hurt that our forefathers felt, instead of hold on to the power that comes in the forgiveness, because you see it is impossible for you to see past your hurt, when your hurting, but the truth once you forget the hurt, you can acknowledge the important things, like life, liberty and the right to be as great as you want to be. Don’t let anyone tell you that anyone owes you anything in this world because you’ll never reach because you’ll be waiting for that handout. Instead go where you want to go, in the same breath i tell you remember that not everyone out there is like you, and they may not have come to terms with themselves as yet, so be patient, but always let us hold our heads high as citizens first and foremost of heaven, because when all this has passed what will matter is how YOU treated every person YOU met here.