December 29, 2014

Dear Sir,

I have always voted for the PLP. Most of us in the black community have voted for the PLP because we assume (perhaps naively) — based on the PLP electioneering rhetoric — that they will represent the interest of the black Community. Hence I am often very frustrated when I read what often seems to be absorbing the emotional energy of some PLP MPs, particularly when I consider the ongoing challenges, the overall conditions and the continuing structural position of the black Community resulting from decades — centuries — of racist policies imposed on it.

Some (perhaps many) have said that I do not like white people (a generalisation which has all of the validity of most generalisations, particularly since I do not know very many!)

What I do greatly dislike is the indifference of many white people and too many black people to the structural position of the black community which has not changed since 1834 and the many continuing and consistent policies of the OBA/UBP which are intended to reinforce the supremacy of the white community and the demeaning and oppression of the black community.

We, as a black community, are in the numerical majority and a majority in the prisons.

The fact that we are not in a majority in anything that is a social or economic positive is clear enough evidence that the structure of this society continues as it has always been since 1834 and both too many blacks as well as whites take it for granted that it is the way that it should be. I do not take it for granted that is the way it is supposed to be and I believe that those who put themselves forward as either leaders or representatives of the black community should have no time or thought or energy for anything except addressing the condition of the black community!

Yours truly,

EVA HODGSON

(Comments by readers on this letter have been removed due to the fact that many were considered libellous)