racism Archives - The Womb

By ELSA JOEL

Elsa: I’m too much in awe of what you are in totality Prof. Verene Shepherd. This opportunity to chat and get to know you better is an honour. When you decided to research the history of Jamaican women, did you have some kind of an urge to unearth Jamaican feminism, the genesis of it all and tell the world that feminism is nothing new to Jamaica?

Prof. Verene: Thank you for taking the time to explore my work, ideas and influences. First of all, my overall research interest as a Social Historian, is the experiences of historically marginalized people: enslaved Africans, indentured Asians (in particular Indians), left behind men and boys, women (including enslaved women and household workers). My interest in women’s experiences was influenced by the late Historian, Lucille Mathurin Mair, who wrote the first dedicated book on Jamaican women. So she unearthed the history of Jamaican feminism. I simply continued research to show the roots of gender-based violence and the history of women’s activism against all forms of oppression and discrimination. Mair’s work made me a feminist, though.

Elsa: As professor and director of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies for more than two decades, your contribution to the making of Caribbean feminism through writings, teachings and research has been commendable. What do you think should be the role of educational institutions in maintaining and strengthening feminism and thereby secure social transformation constantly?

Prof. Verene: Their role should be to teach the contribution of women to Caribbean History & Development and the meaning of “feminism.” This will reveal the existence of powerful women who did not allow their sex to define them; who abhorred sexism and who showed that to be feminist is simply to believe in gender justice and equality and rights for women. It is not to be “anti-man”. Men should, after-all, be also supporters of feminism.

Elsa: How well/best can educational institutions stay networked through collaborative activities and information sharing on regional, continental and global events as far as women’s rights and gender equality is concerned?

Prof. Verene: By organizing institutional exchanges of staff and students and using today’s virtual space to host collaborative events that result in knowledge exchange. By identifying shared experiences (racism, sexism, the harm of hegemonic masculinity) and engaging in advocacy to bring awareness and inspire societal change.

Elsa: President of the Association of Caribbean Historians, Chair of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust and Chair of the Jamaica National Bicentenary Committee. You have held positions, powerful and meaningful enough to put the Caribbean countries, especially the island of Jamaica on the world stage. Any landmark/strategic enforceable decisions or course of action that you take pride in while carrying out your roles and responsibilities in one of the positions above!

Prof. Verene: My role as Chair of the 2007 Jamaica National Bicentenary Committee caused renewed focus on the impact of British colonialism on the CARICOM Region. It destabilized the Eurocentric narrative about abolition of the trans-Atlantic trafficking in enslaved Africans and uncovered new, African, abolitionists. It focused world attention on reparation and influenced my work at the United Nations, when in 2010 I became a member (and later Chair) of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.

Elsa: Invasion is different from migration. Colonizing a country, thriving on the sweat, toil and blood of forced labour, opposing abolition, sexually exploiting women of colour by white men and the death of millions of overworked and brutalised enslaved people is not just unethical or unjust or uncalled-for but outright immorality, right? Did you see tangible reparations while you co-chaired Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations?

Prof. Verene: You are correct, invasion, conquest, colonization and racism are evil and immoral and the Caribbean is still living with the legacies of such historic wrongs. There was no tangible reparation in 2007; but the conversation around the justification intensified; and the movement has grown since then. Today, though, we see examples, however small, of tangible reparation by non-State actors. The claim against former and current colonizers remains valid.

Elsa: I am not sure if you’ve heard of the terrifying story of slaveholder Simon Taylor. I’m wondering if his family successors can be traced and made to pay the price. This is just a suggestion, because he was one of the biggest slaveholders in the Caribbean. At least his family must be made known so that they share the shame and not just the fortune this inhuman colonizer made by trading and exploiting slaves. Just the tip of an iceberg, but a good start. Your take Dr. Shepherd!

Prof. Verene: Yes; I know the history of Simon Taylor very well, especially through the Arcedekne papers at the University of Cambridge. I was struck by his stark disrespect for African women subjected to sale by his description of the ideal young women to be bought by enslavers. I have not, however, traced his family.

Elsa: Within the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which position made you feel it’s your destiny to be playing your part in it? Or, did you enjoy every assignment that you undertook?

Prof. Verene: The Working Group on which I served (2010-2015) and the Treaty Body on which I now serve (2016-present) both fall under the Office of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). I have enjoyed the work and challenges of both positions. They call for the elimination of racial discrimination, including against people of African descent.

Elsa: Deplorable, socially unjust and dangerous, racial discrimination has been a curse on humanity since time immemorial. Walter Scott, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Stephon Clark, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ibrahima Barrie in Belgium, the list goes on in spite of the creation of the International Decade for People of African Descent. Committees of many kinds, with different names and objectives, with experts of high moral standing and acknowledged impartiality are supposed to ensure racism is an offence, hate crime, illegal and punishable. As a member of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (WGEPAD), how often do you come across the effects of this crime and how often are the accused punished severely/ befittingly?

Prof. Verene: I am no longer a member of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent (WGEPAD). But while a member, I saw the effects first-hand on country visits. But I do not have to be a member of a UN body to come across the effects of hate crime etc. I travel and experience racism all the time just on the basis of skin colour. I also live in a Region scarred and disfigured by colonialism, which gave rise to racism, hate crimes, unspeakable forms of torture and punishment, racial profiling and discrimination on all the grounds set out in article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination. Punishment is not as frequent as occurrence because not many countries criminalize hate speech and racial discrimination.

Elsa: When you were asked to inquire into Zwarte Piet, what’s the first thought that raced through your mind?

Prof. Verene: I was not personally asked to enquire into Zwarte Piet. African people and people of African descent brought the practice to the attention of certain UN Treaty Bodies and the WGEPAD of which I was a member. It is a custom that was condemned as racist long before the WGEPAD started to pay attention to it.

Elsa: Your piece of mind for ‘That’ Belgian UNESCO official who claimed that you had no authority to speak on behalf of the UN and were abusing the name of the UN to bring your own agenda to the media.

Prof. Verene: I pay no attention to such utterances and statements that reflect ignorance.

Elsa: Your most beautiful childhood memory, a favourite school teacher, an adorable/brilliant student you nurtured and one-two awards that surprised you?

Prof. Verene: i)I recall my father taking home a beautiful piece of black and white polka dot fabric that my mother designed and made into the most fabulous dress that I wore to a school function. I must have been about 8 years old. I did not want to take it off. ii)All my teachers brought something new and interesting to my educational journey. I see them as a collective. iii)I am so proud of all of my students. They enriched my life. I am proud of those who have followed my footsteps to become Historians or at least to study History, and also those who have embraced gender justice and human rights. One of my past students even took over from me as the GRULAC member on the WGEPAD and one, an Attorney who studied History, and now works in the Office I head, was a recent UN Fellow. My first History PhD student teaches in the Institute for Gender and Development Studies and has just done me the honour of asking me to co-edit a book with her! iv) I was very surprised to have been awarded one of the 2019 President’s Book Award at the St Martin Book Fair in that year and to have been placed on the Black Achievement Wall of Honour at the UN, New York in 2017, alongside such luminaries as President Barack Obama and Miriam Makeba!

Elsa: If I am to begin reading your books, which one would you recommend first and why?

Prof. Verene: I Want to Disturb My Neighbour: Lectures on Slavery, Emancipation & Post-colonial Jamaica (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 2007) – because it explains who I am and what issues agitate and shape my consciousness.

Elsa: A thought for the day! Our take-home message!

Prof. Verene: Always be your authentic self! Pretence is pathetic!

By Pooja Bhattacharjee

Capitalism is an economic system in which means of production are privately owned and the decisions with respect to production (what, how and when to produce) are largely determined by the forces of the free market that are largely based on profits.

Capitalism structurally oppresses, restricts, and inhibits the access of marginalized individuals, minority communities, and differently abled persons by regulating the opportunities available to them. Based on such structures of inequities, it further exacerbates sexism, casteism, ableism, and racism. The commodification of women’s labour is at its peak, courtesy of the unequal power structures normalized by capitalism.

Feminism is a socio-economic and political ideology focused on dismantling gender discriminatory structures. It’s about fighting for and creating equality and a good life for everyone, regardless of their sex, gender, race, ethnicity, education, income, religion, or where they live. These goals cannot be achieved in capitalism. Using minority communities and individuals to generate economic and social value in service of reinforcing inequitable social stratification, race and social difference generate economic and social value for feminism when women are lauded for “overcoming” struggles based on gender, race, disability, and so on to fit themselves into a one-size-fits-all notion of feminist progress.

The focus for improving institutional sexism in the workplace is thus placed upon improving the gender pay gap. Solutions to alleviate the problem have been widely debated and disputed. Some argue that women should be remunerated for their ‘household chores’ (which would hardly serve to de-gender the concept of housework and thus maintains the sexist ideology that is associated with it); others say that working hours need to be more flexible to accommodate working mothers, while yet others argue men should simply help out more at home. Women on average do about twice as much housework as men. All of these arguments have their merits and de-merits but none of them really get to the crux of the issue. In order to be paid the same as men, we first have to fight the institutional sexism which exists at almost every level of society.

Many sectors such as automation, information technology and other outgrowths of capitalism are allowing women to compete and win in traditionally male-dominated fields. But observing that some women are quite empowered in capitalism does not imply that the path has been laid and that if we just follow it the goals of feminism will be reached.

Further, capitalism has set up a system of high working hours for low wages for its labourers and has established a pre-set power role between the owner of the factors of production and the individuals who sell their labour. Given the inherently oppressive and exploitative nature that capitalism entails, and the toxicity that is involved with it, the skewed power relation is only amplified when a woman is selling her labour for which she is paid a wage that significantly undermines the value of contribution made by her. The problems associated with capitalism is particularly biased towards women, there’s always some achievements or standards that they are not meeting, or a role model that capitalism strives them to be. This article achieves to streamline a discussion around the so-called role fulfilment mechanisms which we have become so adept at.

The Superwoman Effect

Superwoman – though a term associated with women empowerment and celebrates the achievements of women in corporate and on the domestic front, is often misused by capitalism and society to expect sacrifice from women. Gender, class and literature examines the superwoman phenomenon and the impact it has on the women and the stress level which is induced by capitalism. By definition, a superwoman is someone who, ‘takes on the roles of mother, nurturer and breadwinner out of economic and social necessity’.

The superwoman or supermom is associated with a woman who can juggle traditional role expectations associated with being a female and the role and expectations of career advancement and upward social mobility. In her book ‘The Second Stage’ (1981), Betty Friedan describes the superwoman expectation as the double enslavement of women by capitalism since it requires a sacrifice, either at home or work, to be a superwoman.

Girlboss Culture

Girlboss is similar to Superwoman, it provides an aspirational narrative to the struggles. While it is a good thing to work hard and have dreams and work towards achieving your dreams; the idea of social change projected by capitalism through Girlboss defines the narrow constraints of capital accumulation and its associated preservation of hierarchies and inequities. Girlboss feminism emerges from colonial legacies and structures of power that are predicated on maintaining inequalities based on race, ability and normative gender expression.

Success is the headliner of girlboss feminism. ‘The Girlboss Platform’, started in 2016, represents the cultural shift toward marketing personality as a component of successful capitalist subjectivities. It uses motivational content by merging personal and professional upgrades to attain success, the personal becomes a vital selling point in girlboss culture. A pattern of desirable personality traits emerges through the platform’s user engagement, highlighting the role of collective intelligence in shaping conceptions of the ideal empowered woman.

Through these ideas of superwoman and girlboss, capitalism is selling this narrative claiming that anyone can attain wealth, regardless of gender, race, ability and so on – so long as you work hard, think positively and rise above any obstacles thrown at you. By leveraging mediated spaces to perpetuate such aspirational narratives, girlboss feminism naturalizes and obscures the conditions of severe inequality endemic to capitalism.

In her analysis of beauty and lifestyle bloggers, Brooke Erin Duffy highlights the role of authenticity in capitalism. Duffy notes that authenticity represents the demands for self-promotion created by emotional capitalism, defined by Eva Illouz as ‘the complicated intersections of intimacy and political/economic models of exchange’. Girlboss users respond to emotional capitalism’s norms of engaging what is personal and intimate as modes of profitability. This profitability centres on reinforcing gendered expectations of women’s capacity for expressing vulnerability, pointing to how emotional capitalism operates through structures of gender essentialism. Women are expected to be vulnerable and emotional capitalism engages this norm as an opportunity for extracting value. Through the repetitive selling of their own relatability and authenticity, Girlboss users structure the marketing of personality traits as a key feature of gaining influence.

Lastly, to overcome sexism it is necessary to combat this system as a whole, rather than focusing specific issues. The whole system must be critiqued and examined. The incredible technological and scientific advances of the past forty years could have been channelled toward dramatically reducing poverty, improving health care outcomes and the ecological sustainability of our production processes and ensuring security in the supply and distribution of clean water, nutritious food, and adequate housing. These are things that all people value. These are also things that would greatly empower women who suffer disproportionately from the lack of these things.

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