#BTColumn – The Clifford Corbin conundrum

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

by David Comissiong

By now, virtually the whole of Barbados would have seen the infamous “Clifford Corbin video,” in which a white Barbadian male goes on a tirade, using the “N” word in relation to black Barbadians ; expressing contempt for them and their behaviour ; and querying why they (we) had been brought from Africa to Barbados.

And anyone who has watched the video would easily conclude that Clifford Corbin was not thinking and expressing these sentiments for the first time!

Surely, that nasty and evil “N” word rolled off Corbin’s tongue too smoothly, and he spoke in too instinctual and soul-baring a fashion for this to have been the first time that he was verbalizing such thoughts and attitudes.

For me, the most significant thing about Clifford Corbin – after his colour and ethnicity – is his age. Corbin appears to be a relatively young man – perhaps in his early to mid 30’s.

And so, he would have been socialized and shaped, not in the old colonialist Barbados , but in the era of Barbadian Independence – in the Barbados of the 1980s and 1990s.

So, the question must be asked :- how is it possible that after decades of independent nationhood, our Barbadian society is still capable of producing persons who manifest such negative and backward anti-black /anti-African prejudices and sentiments?

Now, as soon as the Clifford Corbin video went viral, a number of persons with familial connections to Mr Corbin felt the need to quickly make and issue public statements dissociating themselves (and their businesses) from him.

But the issue that is bothering me is this :– a child does not raise itself, and therefore the infant Clifford Corbin surely did not raise himself in the Barbadian society of the 1980s and 90s.

And so, if we accept that the Clifford Corbin that we witnessed in this February 2021 video is a Clifford Corbin that has long been in existence, then there are some questions that we must pose to the many “significant persons” who would have played some role in the socializing of this young man – the parents, aunts, uncles, cousins , neighbours, friends, school mates, teachers, religious instructors, and the list goes on.

The first question that comes to mind is this :- if and when these significant persons in the life of young Cliford Corbin heard him using the “N” word to describe black Barbadians, did any of them ever take it upon themselves to admonish and correct him and to give him a lesson in the relevant history and sociology of Barbados?

I wonder if any of these “significant persons” ever took it upon themselves to explain to the young Clifford Corbin that the people he so contemptuously referred to as “n—–s” are in fact some of the true giants of human history?

Did anyone ever teach the young and impressionable Clifford that the ancestors of the people he referred to as
“n—–s” were subjected to the most evil and horrendous oppression possible in what was then the world’s very first out-and-out slave society, and that, in spite of this, they were able to courageously resist the oppression and to, almost miraculously, preserve their precious humanity and their inherent sense of goodwill and human brotherhood?

Did anyone ever make clear to Clifford that it was these same ancestors – kidnaped in Africa and brought against their will to Barbados – who cleared the forests, crafted and worked the plantation fields, operated the sugar factories, and generated the tremendous wealth and resources that were criminally denied to them, and that were instead ploughed into the construction of Europe’s opulent industrial civilization?

Did anyone ever sit down a young Clifford Corbin and explain to him that the vast majority of all that is good and authentic and creative about Barbadian society – its music, folklore, dance, nation language, spirituality, poetry, literature, crafts, cuisine, visual arts, and traditions of social activism and political statesmanship – has been produced by the people he contemptuously refers to as “n—–s”?

When Clifford was coming of age in the 1990s, did any of those responsible for his socialization make him aware that Barbados – under a series of predominantly black Barbadian governmental administrations – had so developed its social sectors that the United Nations (UN) rated our country as high as position number 19 on the UN’s world spanning “Human Development Index”?

The question I am really posing here is whether Clifford Corbin’s racism was permitted, facilitated, encouraged, ignored, or was simply not challenged by the people around him?

Whatever the answer to that question may be, the reality is that if – in 2021 – a young white Barbadian could possess such contempt for the black majority population of this remarkable country then that is extremely worrying and problematic.

It tells us that in spite of the fact that much has been accomplished in the field of race relations over the 54 years of our existence as an independent nation, much more still needs to be done.

Let us all, therefore, use the negative example of Clifford Corbin as a wake-up call – all of us – Whites, Blacks, Indians and every other relevant colour or ethnicity.

Let us make up our minds to face our still lingering and vexed issue of race prejudice and injustice in an honest, mature and responsible manner – undergirded by a commitment to the “general welfare” of our nation.

And let us always remember and acknowledge that it takes a village to raise a child, and that there must be collective responsibility if and when we produce the Clifford Corbins of this world.

David Comissiong is Barbados’ Ambassador to Caricom.