
An old friend sent us this photo of the Barbados Aquatic Club. We have no idea who took the photo or owns it, so if it’s your photo and there’s a problem please let us know.
There was a time when the Aquatic Club was one of those places like the Yacht Club where our own Auntie Moses was welcome to clean the toilets or work in the kitchen – but when it came to swimming, sailing or having a rum punch on the outlook, well that was something else. “Europeans Only” thank you, was the reality for far longer than many on this island care to admit. Even after independence it took a while to change the political and economic reality. In the 1970s worthwhile employment opportunities at the banks still listed “European Experience preferred” as a code phrase.
In truth fear was a catalyst during the 1960’s too. It wasn’t like everyone just decided to get together and sing “Kumbaya” one evening after independence. The white plantation class were more than a little worried about “things getting out of hand.” Some very prominent white folks moved to Australia at the time, and I truly hope they and their descendants are doing well.
But… after so many years of mixing who was or is “white” on this rock?
Now it is class division, not race…
…that maintains the curtain that kept Auntie Moses in the kitchen back when Frankie Sinatra hid in the walk-in cooler.
Oh, there are those who love to keep the racial divisions alive on this island of mixed breed mongrels. Owen Arthur is one. Liz Thompson is another, but there are many more prominent Bajans who have profited from race-baiting. Mostly BLP I think, but there are enough examples elsewhere and that’s true too.
So we bring you the photo of the Aquatic Club, and a few lines from another old friend at Oxford, who recounts how Grantley Adams could only drop off his white wife at the Aquatic Club – but was unwelcome to enter himself. Times must have been different for Mrs. Adams to attend when her husband was unwelcome. Very different times fuh sure!
Leisure spaces – including churches – were segregated. The large hotels, the haunts of white society, excluded black people (except as workers), and clubs such as the Yacht Club or the Aquatic Club, and certain cricket clubs, were exclusively for a white membership. Grantley Adams, a coloured, English educated lawyer – who later rose to prominence as the first black Prime Minister* of Barbados – had an English wife. 18 ‘At that time’ Neville recalled,
“She was a member of the Aquatic Club in Bay Street and Grantley was not a member, he was a black man, he wasn’t a member, but she had that privilege as a white woman to be a member of the Aquatic. And Grantley would carry her to the Aquatic Club, drop her there and turnaround and come back down the road [laughs]. Tell me when you’re ready and I’ll come back and pick you up when you go…He drop her there. That is your thing. You belong to that club. I’ll put you there, you come back when you’re ready to come, call me and I’ll come back and pick you up.”
PDF download: Memories of Race and the Formation of Nation: Barbados 1937-1967
Mary Chamberlain Oxford Brookes University
Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson: “Catch a Nigger by the toe, when he squeals…”
UPDATED May 7, 2014: Poll closed due to organised campaign to support Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson
Did Top Gear or Jeremy Clarkson hire some backroom operation to change the results of BFP’s poll? That’s a definite possibility.
BFP’s poll asked if our readers could hearing Clarkson saying the word ‘nigger’ in the YouTube video. For the first few days the results were running about 90% yes… but then we saw dozens and dozens of ‘no’ responses coming from two IP numbers in the UK, where the people involved were obviously conducting an organised effort to change the results of the poll in Clarkson’s favour.
Naughty, naughty!
So we’ve frozen the poll where it ended up, but our readers should know that the displayed result doesn’t reflect the actual views of BFP’s readers that is running about 90% ‘yes’ and 8% ‘no’ and 2% ‘can’t tell, too drunk to care’.
Cliverton
“Einee meenie miney moe…”
“There’s a slope on it…” (Clarkson as an asian man walks on a bridge. YouTube video below.)
And we haven’t even told you about Clarkson’s Nazi salute or his black dog named after a black footballer.
Is Jeremy Clarkson unthinking, always over the line… or truly a racist?
I haven’t decided for myself as yet, but here are a few tidbits for your consideration – including an
apologyexcuse from Clarkson.Is the BFP crew going to the TopGear festival at Bushy Park? You bet! We wouldn’t miss it for anything… no matter what Mr. Clarkson thinks or says about the colours of our skins.
Jeremy Clarkson’s
apologyexcuseHey… no matter what he says about mumbling, I hear the word ‘Nigger’ clear ’nuff in the video at the top of this post. How about you?
Further Reading and Viewing…
UK Mirror: Jeremy Clarkson’s previous ‘race rows’: From black dogs and Nazi salutes to Lenny Henry
UK Mirror: Video: Watch Jeremy Clarkson use n-word in unseen Top Gear footage
The Guardian: Jeremy Clarkson ‘begs forgiveness’ over N-word footage
Jeremy Clarkson: Twitter feed with
apologyexcuse.49 Comments
Filed under Barbados, Celebrities, Culture & Race Issues, Race
Tagged as Barbados, Barbados Race and Culture, Controversy, Jeremy Clarkson N Word, Jeremy Clarkson Racist Comments, Race, Top Gear, Top Gear Barbados, Top Gear Controversy, Top Gear Race Controversy