Dear Editor,
The ‘frog in the pot’ story is about frogs being unbothered when placed in a pot of slowly heated water and how they remain oblivious until the water boils them to death. Editor, this story is generally offered as a metaphor cautioning people to be aware of how they adjust themselves to threats lest they suffer eventual undesirable consequences.
African Guyanese have adjusted themselves to extrajudicial killings with silence. African Guyanese watch their brothers and sisters in Mocha being abused and dispossessed of their land which is now being sold to PPP political cronies, and they expressed no collective outrage. African Guyanese suffer political persecution, loss of opportunities, discrimination, and loss of jobs and they dance and sing. African Guyanese welcome racist PPP leaders into their communities for photo opportunities and satisfy themselves by asking for a trench to be cleaned, a field to be cleared, and some sports equipment, not understanding that their communities are entitled to millions, billions for proper economic development. African Guyanese watched as Critichlow and IDPADA-G were defunded, and nearly destroyed, and they shuffle on in silence, not understanding that those attacks are meant to disempower African people and African institutions.
Editor as the water slowly boils in the pot, the frogs are unaware of the existential threat it poses to them, and so are African Guyanese blissfully unaware. African Guyanese cavort and support manifestly racist PPP “friends” and politicians, people who despise them, but they laugh and joke with these vile personalities on social media. African Guyanese politicians in the PPP party are aware of the racism and bias the political party they support mete out to their African brothers and sisters but they think themselves lucky to be handpicked by the oppressive PPP regime. They would do well to remember how the once powerful Roger Luncheon was discarded by the PPP once he was no longer helpful to them.
Editor, African Guyanese have forgotten that their forefathers arrived on this land of Guyana hundreds of years before the majority ethnic group in Guyana. African Guyanese have forgotten that it was their ancestors whose labor cleared the lands, dug the canals, and cultivated the many lands and fields on which others live today. African Guyanese are entitled to equal access to all opportunities and equal justice under the law.
As the pot continues to boil, if we do not recognize the rising threat and work together to improve our collective lot, then we will simply die in the pot as the water increases to a slow boil. Editor, African Guyanese must stand together or curse our children to a future of mendicancy and servitude. Our children deserve better.
Sincerely,
M. Peters
