"let's address slavery and RACISM, and expell everyone who's NOT black"
Non-Blacks Expelled at Conference
Conference Against Racism Expels Non-Blacks, Says Too Traumatic to Discuss Slavery Before Whites
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados Oct. 2 — Delegates at an anti-racism conference voted Wednesday to expel non-blacks from the meeting, saying it was too traumatic to discuss slavery in front of them.
The dozen or so whites and a couple of Asians, mainly interpreters and members of non-governmental groups, left without protest.
The more than 200 delegates from several countries voted overwhelmingly for the restriction, with about 50 abstaining, officials said. The event was organized by various non-governmental organizations.
"This is an African family occasion and therefore they should not be allowed to sit down and talk with us," said Garadina Gamba, a spokeswoman for the British delegation.
Conference chairwoman Jewel Crawford of the United States said "There are a number of black people who have been traumatized by white people and they suffered psychologically and emotionally and, as a result of that trauma, some of them did not care to discuss their issues in front of them."
But Jean Violet Baptiste, spokeswoman for the Guyana-based African Cultural and Development Association, said organizers should have made clear that only blacks were welcome: "You can't have people come all this way and then ask them to leave."
A major issue at the meeting is a plan by black activists from the Caribbean and North America to sue France for making Haiti pay millions of dollars for recognition of its independence nearly two centuries ago.
Attorney General Mia Mottley of Barbados urged delegates to build upon last year's U.N. conference against racism in South Africa, which recognized slavery and the slave trade as a crime against humanity.
The meeting, titled African and African Descendants' World Conference Against Racism, was hosted by the government of Barbados. Organizers included the Congress Against Racism Barbados and the U.S.-based Congress of People of African Descent
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20021002_2410.html