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| This Rasta looks sad. Maybe she got put out de bank too. |
Yesterday’s Daily Express ran an article on the alleged discrimination against a Rastafarian man at a Republic Bank branch. The bank has a no-hat policy which said man apparently violated. The victim claims that the bank does not require members of other faiths to remove their correlating head-wear. On Gayelle TV’s DotCom with Conrad Parris, the issue was discussed once again under the overlaying question: “How colonial is that?” One viewer referred to the incident as “Rasta racism” (saving thoughts on this phrase for another blog!). However, while we’re on the topic of colonialism, let’s ask a few related questions:
- How colonial is a Canadian Police Commissioner?
- How colonial is the T&T government spending $93,000TTD on British tourists’ medical care when there isn’t a proper health care system for the citizens of the nation?
- How colonial is that NAPA monstrosity that looks like its about to eat the rest of Port-of-Spain?
- How colonial is it that most local stations play 20hours daily of foreign programming? (haven’t even started talking about the fact that everybody has cable anyway…)
- How colonial is the reinstatement of the hangman?
The list of “how colonial” questions could go on and on, but that’s the point! [Neo]-Colonialism does not occur in specific incidences or a few people’s antiquated ideas; these are issues encroaching on our everyday lives. So if there was truly a case of discrimination at the bank, this occurrence is a microcosm of a colonial system that never ceased.
Zahra Gordon 
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