So while I understand your comments as a 36 year old looking back at the 25 year old who wrote this piece, I still defend the comment made then. Although a decade has certainly tempered my view… The thought that I ‘hate’ my own people, is actually erroneous. Do you hate your brother because he’s being an asshole and you tell him, “Dude you’re being a jerk!”? Is spanking a child abuse? Is BSDM exploitative rape?

I love being truly Caribbean in my skin, bones, upbringing and experiences. I love human beings where-ever they are found. Yet, I feel as though if you are too harsh in your comments around these parts, people tell you you’re painting too harsh a picture. I dunno… I wrote this piece like I write so much in my life… for myself. They’re all pieces of me released into the wild… I know I can be very critical about things that happen in the Caribbean, but it’s only because I love my countries, my people so and I know they are capable of more than the mediocrity that is the status quo. I am NOT misrepresenting, this is what it is. I’m just a lot less likely to sweeten my words when I am annoyed about someone’s cavalier ignorant comments about Haiti, which this article was actually PROMPTED by. So forgive my youthful hothead… had I written it now, it would have been less likely to offend anyone, but hopefully shared so info.

A wonderful post, marred by this nightmarishly false, bigoted excerpt. I would love to share this post– the rest of it is brilliant– but I will not expose others to this bigotry.

I don’t know whether you really do hate your own people this much, or whether you’re just excessively careless with words; but the claim that political commentary in the Caribbean is more marked by egotistical posturing than the equivalent in Italy, America, or England, is a claim that seems stained by cultural bigotry if not racism.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself. If you’re truly writing for the edification of your people, try not to wound with false condemnation while you do so.