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Cosmetology and the Politics of Race |
After Burnham's split from the PPP, the position of party chairman became vacant. At the congress of the PPP, two candidates were nominated, Brindley Benn, a black man; and Balram Singh Rai, an Indian. It was essential, in the eyes of the party, given the race split of the electorate, to have a black person fill that post, the Leader being Dr. Jagan, an Indian.
But the hierarchy of the party was placed in a serious dilemma. Because the great majority of the delegates were Indians, Balram Singh Rai was the favorite, the obvious front-runner in a democratic contest. So, in order to get Benn into the position as Chairman, the rules had to be bent. And so, too, democracy, as we know it.
Party apparatchiks, who understood the importance of the black face, canvassed heavily for Benn. But their efforts were not sufficient; the votes were not there. Dr. Jagan himself had to get into the act. His intervention sealed the outcome of the election: Benn was selected, Rai was defeated. Indeed, to this day, a great number of Indians cannot forgive Dr. Jagan for his curry favoring when he should have been above the fray. But Jagan, the consummate politician, was dealing with the reality of politics, not an abstract moralism.
The cosmetology of a black face was justified, and so was the cosmetology of democracy. After all, politics, when it's a vote catching exercise, cannot always depend on democracy to deliver the goods. Paradoxical as this definition of democracy seems, it's the reality of the game of politics.
It is sometimes said, too, that in mass political movements, promotions follow merit - and merit is usually dependent on seniority (cf Committee Chairmanships in US congress). But, again, this is not true in the democratic process in a racially spilt society. The odd candidate usually climbs the ladder with such voltage that the glass ceiling, hitherto an impregnable barrier to him, is busted like a forest in a hurricane (cf Clarence McKenzie to Supreme Court Judgeship.)
People of the fifties, too, will recall Burnham, a black man, leading a predominantly black party, and his pick for party chairman. It had to be an Indian. Neville Bissember filled the slot just fine. But, before long, Bissember proved useless, a flop, so an Indian replacement had to be culled out. The fortunate catastrophe was Bhiswashwar Ramsaroop, whose best qualification was his race. And, of course, his maximum loyalty. Note that during his dictatorship, Burnham needed no cosmetology. There was no divided electorate. Indeed, there was no electorate. And Hoyte acceded to a top position by virtue of other types of qualifications. He out-Greened Green.
To emphasize, when the body politic is split along racial lines, the compelling characteristic of the odd man's merit is his race and his loyalty. Other qualifications are not necessary. Take Sam Hinds, the present PPP Prime Minister. Earlier in his political career, he found that he couldn't get very far in Burnham's Peoples National Congress. He was not the odd man. He then tried the Working Peoples Alliance and a similar fate awaited him. So he bolted to the PPP. And they needed him -- badly.
But Mr. Hinds had one serious impediment for the PPP. Although he had the built-in characteristic of race into his resume, and a loyalty which can be professed -- or developed -- he did not have the seniority element. The PPP was placed in a quandary. How could they get Mr. Hinds into a top slot for the cosmetic imperative? The glass ceiling was an impregnable barrier. Party faithfuls of long standing blocked the route.
The party congress, usually called "the peoples congress", responding to the 'one man one vote' routine could not suffice. This routine could not produce the required result.
Now enters the Leader again. By a masterstroke, he introduces the concept "Civic" -- a nebulous hodge-podge of people were allowed to form a union with the PPP as a separate thing. The Civic was not a party, or even a knit group of people. Civic was a contrived conduit to bring individuals into the PPP purely for cosmetic reasons of race. (And some other people were able to squeeze through to the hierarchy of the PPP, because they were needed to bolster a flagging PPP.) By way of Civic, seniority was no longer an aspect of merit. So Sam, and some others, go to the top -- and the fawning sycophants of twenty- and thirty-year "experience" endorse Sam's, and the others' meteoric rise. I don't know how well Sam performs but I do know how some of the other black Civics do. They are mere pedants who go to school in a church.
Does this logic explain the PNC/Reform? Look into the structure of the Reform. It's a mutation of debutantes relative to the people who have been in the PNC even before Hoyte, their leader. Politics, as we know it, is expediency -- more cosmetology and less democracy.
So, cosmetology and "corporate" democracy are perverted twins, aren't they? And, my fellow Guyanese/Americans are fulsome in their praise for Guyana's and America's democracy.
But as a practical matter, consider whether the odd person, the cosmetic face, is able to couple himself to "his" people. Certainly not. His black skin is now covered by a brown mask or vice versa. And the political difference becomes discernible. After all, his function is one of loyalty to his benefactor. He serves his benefactor, and the benefactor's interests. Period.
If not, how else can we explain the exalted positions to which Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice have been catapapulted (sorry, I mean catapulted) in the Republican Party in these United States.
In an article, "Uncle Tom's Cabinet", Barbara Ransey and Cheryl Harris, two University Professors, the former in African-American Studies and History, the latter, in Law, has something rather profound to say:
"It is a sad, ironic testimony to the current complexities of racial politics in America that African-Americans like Colin Powell and Condeleeza Rice can attain unprecedented career advances in tandem with the sweeping disenfranchisement of thousands of black voters.
"The Bush victory enabled these two loyal Bush family (White) house servants to become some of the most powerful blacks in the nation at the expense of the rights of black voters and the ratification of the theft by the Supreme Court. Now it appears the constitutional mandate of equal protection requires that the rights of some voters (guess who?) be ignored in order to protect the rights of others.
"Given the flagrant racism that permeated the election and its aftermath, it was a strategic move when, just days after Gore's concession, a smiling Dubya proudly announced his diverse senior nominees, nudging first Rice (for national security adviser) and then Powell (for secretary of state) before the cameras to sing his praises. Even before the Supreme Court handed victory to Bush, he had indicated that these two would be some of his first appointments. This is no coincidence; it is another example of what the Republicans really mean by "colorblindness." Colorblindness means that we should all pretend that race played no role in selecting high-ranking black people to speak for a regime whose commitments to racial justice are seriously suspect at best."
There has been a persistent criticism from PPP Indians here in New York that Sam Hinds should not have been so elevated in their party. And there are others who, because of the elevation of Hinds and other Civics personages, claim that the party is progressively abandoning them and other party stalwarts. Neither of such positions is true.
Hinds cannot work in the exclusive interest of black faces, (that is the domain of PNC/R) if it is not the party's position, which certainly it is not. He can do very little, if anything, to determine party policy. And, to keep his position he has to "put up or shut up". Or, as Martin Carter observes, in poignant poetic metaphor, " the mouth is closed for the food it eats."
In the case of the United States the two ladies quoted above say that, " there is a greater tolerance of phenotype diversity, as long as there is conformity in terms of ideology and loyalty".
Indeed, such symbolic integration, the cosmetology factor, at the top can be valuable as long as the race symbols, the cosmetic pretenders, remain faithful promoters of the party line.
So cosmetology is the name of the game. It's the stuff on which political power nourishes itself. It's the intra-"democratic" paradigm, the paradigm for survival in a race-based electorate.
[But folk aren't fooled so easily either within or outside the United States. Indeed, Powell, seen as a war hawk, a perfect fit into the Cheney-Bush variant of the Republican Party, is carefully watched as Editorials around the world caution on the Sunday following General Powell's confirmation.]
when the body politic is split along racial lines, the compelling characteristic of the odd man's merit is his race and his loyalty. Other qualifications are not necessary. So cosmetology is the name of the game. It's the stuff on which political power nourishes itself. It's the intra-"democratic" paradigm, the paradigm for survival in a race-based electorate.