CAS­TRIES-A study by the In­ter-Amer­i­can Com­mis­sion on Hu­man Rights (IACHR) has found that the prob­lems of race are most per­sis­tent in the Caribbean, com­pared to oth­er parts of the Amer­i­c­as. The find­ings of the study, which looked at the "Sit­u­a­tion of Peo­ple of African De­scent in the Amer­i­c­as," was re­leased here at a spe­cial cer­e­mo­ny on the fringes of the just-con­clud­ed Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) Sum­mit. The study, which ex­am­ined the is­sue in the Amer­i­c­as, found al­though the prob­lem was most per­sis­tent in the Caribbean, it was al­so most sub­tle. IACHR com­mis­sion­er and rap­por­teur on Peo­ple of African De­scent and Against Racial Dis­crim­i­na­tion, Prof Rose-Marie Belle An­toine, has sug­gest­ed the sub­tle per­sis­tence of racial pro­fil­ing and dis­crim­i­na­tion in the Caribbean could be be­cause peo­ple have grown to ac­cept it. "Colour prej­u­dice is per­haps the most un­der-re­port­ed form of dis­crim­i­na­tion that we have but at the same time, per­haps, it is the most com­plained about in in­for­mal ways," she added. An­toine said that though there was an ac­knowl­edge­ment of so­cial and cul­tur­al dif­fer­ences among races in the Caribbean, there still was anx­i­ety when it came to full and deep ac­cep­tance of those dif­fer­ences.

She added: "While we pat our­selves on the back for be­ing rain­bow coun­tries, the re­al­i­ty is that there are still race ten­sions in our so­ci­eties. "In more mod­ern times this has man­i­fest­ed it­self most promi­nent­ly in the re­la­tions be­tween In­do and African-Caribbean peo­ples, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Guyana and Trinidad and To­ba­go." In pre­sent­ing the re­port, An­toine said while there may be less overt dis­plays of racism, es­pe­cial­ly be­tween peo­ple of African and Eu­ro­pean de­scent, there were still some very strong struc­tur­al par­a­digms that ex­ac­er­bat­ed in­equal­i­ties be­tween the races. "Fi­nan­cial pow­er is still large­ly in the hands of white mi­nori­ties in the re­gion be­cause of busi­ness pat­terns that have shift­ed lit­tle in the cen­turies," she said. She point­ed to stud­ies in Bar­ba­dos which showed black en­tre­pre­neurs have greater dif­fi­cul­ty in se­cur­ing busi­ness loans and cap­i­tal than their white coun­ter­parts, which she said placed them at a dis­ad­van­tage from the out­set. The study al­so showed that in the Caribbean racial dis­crim­i­na­tion to Afro-de­scen­dent peo­ple was linked to the dark­ness of their skin, pover­ty and the con­trol of eco­nom­ic re­sources. Cari­com sec­re­tary gen­er­al Ir­win La Rocque, in re­ceiv­ing the re­port, said the Caribbean must take "care­ful note of the re­port, giv­en the de­mo­graph­ics of our re­gion."

He added: "Too many per­sons of African de­scent in the hemi­sphere do not have ac­cess to ba­sic ser­vices in health and ed­u­ca­tion, for ex­am­ple, and there­by have dif­fi­cul­ty in re­al­is­ing their full po­ten­tial and con­tribut­ing mean­ing­ful­ly to the ad­vance­ment of their fam­i­lies, com­mu­ni­ties and na­tions." La Rocque said that sit­u­a­tion was one of the is­sues that prompt­ed Cari­com to sup­port a res­o­lu­tion at the 61st Gen­er­al As­sem­bly of the Unit­ed Na­tions which re­sult­ed in March 23, 2007 be­ing de­clared "In­ter­na­tion­al Day to Mark the Abo­li­tion of the Trans-At­lantic Slave Trade." He said it could not be de­nied that peo­ple of African de­scent have con­tributed im­mense­ly to the de­vel­op­ment of the re­gion and as such should be re­spect­ed for their con­tri­bu­tions. He added: "Ladies and gen­tle­men, this re­port may be a sober re­minder of the deep-root­ed prob­lems which re­main in the hemi­sphere but there are suf­fi­cient ex­am­ples of peo­ple of African de­scent who came to the fore in­spite of the chal­lenges. "There is a need, there­fore, even in the Caribbean, to en­quire se­ri­ous­ly and ob­jec­tive­ly in­to these is­sues with a view to con­struct­ing new­er par­a­digms, based on gen­uine equal­i­ty and so­cial ad­vance­ment for all of our peo­ples." (CMC)