Dependency, White Privilege, and Transnational Hegemonic Reconfiguration: Investigating Systems of Power and Identity Privilege in The Bahamas

White cultural hegemony has been used as a determinant of identity privilege in The Bahamas since the beginning of British colonialism. This ideal justifies and confers the dominance of whiteness while also including a moral responsibility to enforce the racial hierarchy as a part of a "global cognitive dysfunction" (Mills 18) that sees non-white actors as intrinsically lesser; an understanding Charles Mills argues is needed to uphold a racialized social contract. This “grammar of racial difference” inculcates the need for whiteness to act as savior through the subjugation and cultural integration of the “other” (Mahmud). However, beyond its role as a dysfunction, this conception of a moral obligation—or colloquially, a ‘white savior complex’—guides understandings of why colonial leaders forged hegemonic relationships with the U.S. despite the country’s apparent intent to achieve independence. These relationships were a strategic part of a colonial-savior complex and adherence to a global system that values 'whiteness.'  This paper suggests that despite independence, The Bahamas remains subjected to the dependency role under a system of white privilege, resulting from colonial agreements made with the United States, and multi-national agencies, and regulatory bodies that enforce a hegemonic reconstruction of influence. Ergo, the cultural hegemony of the United States as an industrialized giant merely filled the void that the British rule left behind

Conceptions of Race Beyond North America: The Subversion of the Colonial Racial Contract in The Bahamas

In his work Ethnic groups and boundaries, Frederick Barth argues that applying definitions to group of peoples has less to do with emphasizing a shared culture than with defining the sentiments of communality in opposition to the perceived identity of an ‘other’ (Barth). In applying Barth’s framework, modern Bahamian identity has developed—and is largely understood—in comparison to a Haitian ‘other.' Therefore, this essay will argue that, having gone through multiple iterations of the racial contract, policies of subjugation initially intended for black colonial subjects (e.g. uneven development and colonially encouraged distrust) have been subverted for use by The Bahamas’ post-independence government against those with Haitian ancestry. It will demonstrate that Bahamian sentiments towards Haitians are contextualized historically and based on a long-standing colonial tradition of discrimination and social control that pitted West Indian immigrants against them. While this subjugation is no longer enforced along phenotypical lines, elements of privilege connected to the racial contract are now adjudicated along different lines that may prove harder to distinguish, perhaps making the privileges attached to the dominant identity different from a North American context.</jats:p

Green Gold Is No More

With the collapse of the Banana industry, Gabriel was thrust into a new reality that highlights the challenges of life under the externalities of neocolonialism. Almost 10 years later, Allahdua is one of many who have endured Canada’s migrant worker programmes and is currently an advocate for change

Conceptions of Race Beyond North America: The Subversion of the Colonial Racial Contract in The Bahamas

In his work Ethnic groups and boundaries, Frederick Barth argues that applying definitions to group of peoples has less to do with emphasizing a shared culture than with defining the sentiments of communality in opposition to the perceived identity of an ‘other’ (Barth). In applying Barth’s framework, modern Bahamian identity has developed—and is largely understood—in comparison to a Haitian ‘other.' Therefore, this essay will argue that, having gone through multiple iterations of the racial contract, policies of subjugation initially intended for black colonial subjects (e.g. uneven development and colonially encouraged distrust) have been subverted for use by The Bahamas’ post-independence government against those with Haitian ancestry. It will demonstrate that Bahamian sentiments towards Haitians are contextualized historically and based on a long-standing colonial tradition of discrimination and social control that pitted West Indian immigrants against them. While this subjugation is no longer enforced along phenotypical lines, elements of privilege connected to the racial contract are now adjudicated along different lines that may prove harder to distinguish, perhaps making the privileges attached to the dominant identity different from a North American context

Green Gold Is No More

With the collapse of the Banana industry, Gabriel was thrust into a new reality that highlights the challenges of life under the externalities of neocolonialism. Almost 10 years later, Allahdua is one of many who have endured Canada’s migrant worker programmes and is currently an advocate for change.</jats:p