Casan­dra Thomp­son-Forbes

Sev­er­al To­bag­o­ni­ans are now call­ing for a boy­cott of Re­na’s Chat­tack Roti Shop in Scar­bor­ough, af­ter its own­er, Re­na Har­ry­lal, al­leged­ly called for a boy­cott of all su­per­mar­ket chains who were pulling Ram­saran’s Dairy Prod­ucts in a Face­book com­ment on Wednes­day.

Ram­saran’s Dairy Prod­ucts is cur­rent­ly fac­ing a boy­cott af­ter a com­ment from a fam­i­ly mem­ber on the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) vic­to­ry over the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress in Mon­day’s Gen­er­al Elec­tion, which was deemed as racist, drew out­rage from the pub­lic.

Naila Ram­saran has since apol­o­gised and been fired from her fa­ther’s com­pa­ny but this has not pre­vent­ed the back­lash, with at least six ma­jor su­per­mar­ket chains pulling the com­pa­ny’s dairy prod­ucts from their shelves.

The su­per­mar­ket chains in­clud­ed, Massy Stores, Xtra Foods, West Bees Su­per­mar­ket, JT Al­lum Group of Com­pa­nies, Tru­Valu Su­per­mar­ket and Per­sad’s D Food King.

How­ev­er, dur­ing a thread of com­ments un­der a press re­lease is­sued by Per­sad’s D Food King, in which it not­ed that it will be ceas­ing busi­ness with Ram­saran’s Dairy Com­pa­ny, a com­ment from Har­ry­lal sparked a fresh furore on the is­land.

Har­ry­lal, who busi­ness is lo­cat­ed in Scar­bor­ough, wrote the fol­low­ing com­ment, “Boy­cott all the gro­cery that tak­ing it if (sic) their shelves In­di­an ppm (sic) all yuh have the pow­ers to shut them down (sic).” In an­oth­er com­ment, she said, “Per­sad’s all yuh go pay the price.”

One of the posts by Tobago businesswoman Rena Harrylal which was deemed in support of a racist rant by a family member of Ramsaran’s Dairy Products.

In an im­me­di­ate re­ac­tion, many To­bag­o­ni­ans voiced their opin­ions about the stance Har­ry­lal took on the is­sue, stat­ing that she was more con­cerned about the ac­tion of the boy­cott rather than the orig­i­nal state­ments made by Naila Ram­saran and how that would af­fect so­ci­ety.

How­ev­er, in an at­tempt to ex­plain her Face­book posts, Har­ry­lal took to an all-fe­male Face­book group, In­side Out Beau­ty, say­ing she was con­cerned about those who work for the dairy com­pa­ny.

“Why would we want to boy­cott a com­pa­ny to put in­no­cent peo­ple out of a job for what one em­ploy­ee think Not fair,” Har­ry­lal wrote in the group post.

In an­oth­er com­ment, she said, “But we can­not pun­ish (sic) in­no­cent peo­ple for what she did.”

In is­su­ing an apol­o­gy there­after, Har­ry­lal said her words were tak­en out of con­text.

“To my IOB mem­bers, my point is if one per­son makes a de­mean­ing com­ment in re­sponse to a com­ment, why must fam­i­ly and the com­pa­ny that em­ploys hun­dreds of peo­ple pay for what that per­son?

The post in which Tobago businesswoman Rena Harrylal attempted to apologise for the comment she made which was deemed in support of a racist rant by a family member of Ramsaran’s Dairy Products.

“Tell her what you want Light her up. Did she dis­cuss what she said with every em­ploy­ee? Why pun­ish in­no­cent ppl and put them out of a job? My words was tak­en in the wrong con­text. I apol­o­gise if I of­fend­ed any­one. Share just u did the post.”

Many To­bag­o­ni­ans have now vowed to boy­cott Har­ry­lal’s es­tab­lish­ment and have gone as far as rec­om­mend­ing oth­er busi­ness­es who sell the same del­i­ca­cy as her es­tab­lish­ment.

Har­ry­lal has since ei­ther edit­ed or delet­ed some of the com­ments she made on Face­book.