Zeitgeist: Colour, race and telephones at Roraima Airways

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

In his 2015 Independence Day speech, President David Granger observed that during colonial times, the faces you saw in a commercial depended on the type of advertisement. Mr. Granger went on to observe that dark-skinned people were put in certain commercials that didn’t bring out the essence of aesthetics (my choice of words). That was a long time ago. The reign of the PNC under Forbes Burnham and the PPP under Cheddi Jagan was supposed to put an end to that. In fact it did. This of course did not remove the bias African-Guyanese middle class had for light complexion and Guyanese Indians’ obsession with whiteness no doubt perpetuated by the racism in Hindu movies. From around 1970 until 1994, dark-skinned African and Indian Guyanese could be found in all types of commercials and were employed in all types of occupations in the private sector. Around 1998 things began to change. Neo-liberal capitalism with all its cultural attendants had now arrived. With it came the atavistic return to ethnically based advertisements that President Granger alluded to. They say zeitgeists come and go and life will always be like that. In Guyana today, the zeitgeist of the immediate post-colonial period is gone. The aesthetics of that era are gone. Those were the days when people shouted out, “Say it loud; I’m Black and I’m proud.” In 2015 is Black still beautiful? Chances of getting into a commercial on television or snatching a flight attendant job if you are black-skinned are almost non-existent. The evidence of the death of the zeitgeist when people in Guyana proudly proclaimed that “Black is beautiful” is everywhere. Just look up at the van with the faces on it advertising anything from pen-torch to bath soap to perfume to pen-torch battery, and the faces are all-white. Yesterday on Vlissengen Road this van was in front of me. On the back door facing me directly was the smile of a very light-complexion couple showcasing the beauty of Lux soap. That is one of the soaps I use. In my car, I keep a file. When you see me on the road, stop me and ask to see the stuff and I will show it to you. Almost every product and service in this country has light-complexioned actors and models in the advertisements. And I am talking from a screw-driver to highly expensive medical treatment at private hospitals. Call my bluff – ask to see the file in my car. You know there is a GT&T placement in the media that goes like this, “Hey, call me.” Well call me and you will see the new zeitgeist in my file. For my research on the exclusion of Black people and dark-skinned Indians in advertisements, I faced some rude situations. One establishment on Sheriff Street was totally unapologetic. Another on Wellington Street said it saw nothing wrong with using white people in the placements in the newspapers. I found that there is a particular occupation that excludes dark-skinned Guyanese – flight attendants. At 4 pm last Wednesday, I called Roraima Group of Companies to see the photographs of the twelve flight attendants it has employed recently to work with Dynamic Airways. Mr. Gerry Gouveia’s secretary told me that Mr Gouveia wasn’t there. She directed me to Mr. Michael of Dynamic Airways. There was no answer. Back to Gouveia. She said Michael does not have a secretary. That is strange. I mean, I could understand and support the feminist argument against female secretaries. But he could have had a male one or a trans-gender secretary or a pan-gender one, but given that position he holds he needs a secretary. Mr. Gouveia’s secretary informed me that Mr. Gouveia does not have a direct land line. You can only get him through the switchboard. Ask me if I believe that. About five minutes after. My cell rang and Mr. Gouveia’s secretary directed me to a website where I can see the faces of the flight attendants. I only saw five. One was Portuguese, and the other four were light complexioned attendants. None was African-Guyanese. Since I didn’t see the other seven, I guess included among them would be those black like me and my editor, Adam Harris. It was on the 2015 election campaign trail, I saw the percentage of dark and brown Guyanese. They make up about ninety percent of our population. Then I looked at the re-plays of the CPL cricket matches at the Providence Stadium. Do we really have about ten percent light-complexioned citizens here? So why do they constitute ninety nine percent of the faces in newspaper and television advertisements? Changing zeitgeist, I guess.