Dear Source:
I am alarmed that Mr. Brundage, as a long time St. Croix visitor, would choose to vent his frustrations in a column instead of trying to seek answers to his questions. No one is denying that blacks sold their own kind. However, it is not as if Europeans came to Africa without the intention of enslaving them before they went there, regardless of who traded them slaves. The mere purchasing of slaves from Africa does not absolve Europe from its unique version of slavery that they imposed on stolen African peoples for centuries after they were sold by Africans. Slavery in Africa was a totally different concept from that in Europe – in Africa, someone could rise from a slave to a landowner or even a political leader, while in Europe and its colonies, slaves were to be slaves for life – and their offspring too. Because of Africa's participation in the slave trade, a fact that no one, including ACRRA is denying, a relationship with Africa has been and continues to be an integral part of reparations.
I am also surprised at Mr. Brundage's allegation that there are racist black people in the Virgin Islands. While there are black Virgin Islanders who are prejudiced, "racism" by definition is a system in which a racial group are systematically oppressed by another race. There can be no black-on-white racism in the Virgin Islands – one look at the socioeconomic classes on the island will show that whites do not have any disadvantage at all from the so-called racism that Mr. Brundage alleges.
You say "I Am a white man married to a black woman from St croix now living in New York city". Why is this even relevant? Are we to think that you are any more knowledgeable on this issue because you are married to a black woman? Are you trying to insult the intelligence of Source readers?
Instead of pondering building a new home among "crime" and "unhappy residents", why not ponder why they're unhappy and committing crimes in the first place?
Dominic Latty
St. Croix
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