Is the day of a “darkie” Prime Minister coming?

It was one of those provocative one-liners that my generation prattled not too innocently about.

Should Keith Rowley, darkie from Tobago, considered too aggressive, uncompromising and threatening to a heterogenous society made up of the brown-skinned middle class, inclusive of Indo-Trinis, the light-skinned Syrian business class and the old French-Creole middle and upper class be allowed to become Prime Minister?

Or should the 58-year old People’s National Movement now in opposition, but sensing a victory to add to its 43 years in government, select the brownish-skinned, mild-mannered, inoffensive Penelope Beckles-Robinson as the preferred choice based on the skin game and anoint her as the leader of party and so place her in a good position in the prime ministership stakes for the general elections scheduled for May 2015?

One pollster contracted to conduct an opinion poll on PNM leadership and the general elections found that if Beckles-Robinson were to be elected PNM leader, the party would win the 2015 election by a wider margin than if Dr. Rowley were re-elected political leader. 

Rasta hair-styled Fitzgerald Hinds, of similar characteristics to Rowley, minister has been told that two former PNM ministers (the odds are that they are of the brown-skin social class) felt that Dr. Rowley was too dark to be prime minister material. 

Moreover, Hinds says party financiers (usually of the lighter variety of hue, which is also a commentary on where the wealth is located in the society) are saying that they would not be prepared to finance a PNM campaign for government with the darkie Rowley at the helm.   The rationale given by the investors is that Rowley is without a broad-base appeal; you can be assured that on skin-game matters “you have to look beneath the surface” for the real reason.  

There are interesting reactions to the statement by Hinds. From a lofty and perhaps hypocritical and or “hear no evil, see no evil” there are those who say the claim is propagandistic.   The disbelievers think raising the contention is an attempt to ignite race and colour conflict in the society.  It is even interpreted by one declared supporter of the United National Congress to be a coded message to Afro-Trinis to vote black in the coming general election. 

Senior Counsel, Martin Daly, (Trinidad Express, February 16, 2014) is “absolutely satisfied that a discussion about skin colour is one that we need to have and that such a discussion is not “race talk”.

“Preference for lighter complexions and prejudice against darker ones is a worldwide phenomenon and exists even among people of the same race,” says the former president of the Law Association.   Daly says there aren’t many “who can truthfully deny that among Indo-Trinidadians lighter skins are favoured, particularly for the purpose of marriage and procreation.”

The foundations of the skin-game in T&T and the Caribbean were laid in slavery, colonialism and indentureship. The black and rebellious slaves were left in the field, while the more acceptable not-so-dark ones, suitably house-trained, were brought into the “great house”. From there the mulatto class evolved.  

The most structured conclusion on the skin game was put forward in the 1950s by the eminent sociologist, Professor Lloyd Braithwaite.  He found evidence that social stratification in Trinidad was based in part on gradations of colour.

“It was based on the one hand on the positive evaluation of the white group, and on the other, on a negative evaluation of the black group.”  Professor Braithwaite found the skin-game social stratification in the education and work situations. 

In the 1970 Black Power Revolution, the dispossessed and militant black social underclass pointed-out that ownership and employment patterns in the private sector favoured the white French-Creole, the light-skinned Indians and Chinese with blacks at the bottom of the heap. 

Society and social acculturation have not stood still and the Mighty Duke’s “Black is Beautiful” urge continues to have resonance. But ingrained social dispositions die hard. 

In the instance of Keith Rowley and his quest for prime ministership, the situation is complicated by politics.  

Leading propagandists of the United National Congress Anand Ramlogan and Roodal Moonilal have been championing the leadership qualities of the far-less offensive Beckles-Robinson with the appropriate sub-text in colour and attitude. 

The PNM’s party elections could determine whether “darkie” Rowley could stick around and hope to be elected prime minister in 2015.