The Tribune

By DR IAN BETHELL-BENNETT

BANG, bang, bang the guns fire, the bullets fly and the peace is broken.

Yet another young man dies at the alter of senseless violence and culturally condoned masculinity.

Yet the men who run the country claim they are not responsible for the chaos and that they are actually in charge.

Never mind the fact that they cannot control or contain anything. However, it seems that they are merely interested in representing the people who are caught breaking the law, who are known murderers, as long as they get rich doing so.

This is the job they signed up for. As the arrogance reaches new proportions, violence and crime escalate out of control, and gangs, well gangs simply thrive on the social breakdown that grips the country.

As families breakdown, politicians blame the violence on marauding youth and their lack of control.

Once again they see no connection between public violence and their very public actions of lying, cheating, and manipulating the system to their benefit, even if it is illegal or could be seen as such.

The hegemonic representation of Bahamian masculinity is a man who takes no prisoners, is hard and un-giving. He does not parent his children nor does he love openly. He speaks gruffly and is unreachable. He is also boastful and loud.

This intersects with the general trend in society towards a lack of humanity because life has simply become too tough.

As people find it harder to survive, they also become less human and certainly less kind. This is ironic given that traditionally, once people hit hard times they would be more giving and less concerned about showing themselves off, and more neighbourly.

The breakdown that is driving the country into social disorder is happening at a number of levels; there is the breakdown of the family because too many people are concerned with external wealth and ‘tingsiness’; the breakdown of moral fibre, which is obvious when we listen to public officials speak, and the encouragement of youth to simply give up, live hard, live on the edge and make money and be famous while the sun shines; tomorrow does not matter.

Many public officials promote this kind of behaviour. They present themselves as untouchable, above the law, and certainly unconcerned by humanity and any of the niceties of grace. They are out to make money at any cost, and this is the image they present to the public. This image is of success and of acceptability, as unchallenged untouchable masculinity – that bad john, the tough gangster.

Also, as the social chaos reigns, we push more young people into the margins of society because we say that they are Haitian and we do not accept them. In fact, we go out of our way to show our bias against Haitians and Bahamian-born children to Haitians. We also tell them that if they commit a crime the law will allow them go free, especially if they can afford a good lawyer. They can be gang members, they can boast about their crime, they can be videotaped attacking someone, but they will be allowed to wear their non-functioning ankle bracelet and walk free and usually kill while they are out, or be killed.

This has become the social order. This has resulted from youth seeking identification and safety in something that is larger than them. This is how they survive the walk to and from school. They join gangs because they got no family at home. They need ‘safety’, they need family, and gangs provide them with that. They are pushed into this by uncaring public sphere that has simply lost sight of what is ethical, human, legal and ‘Christian’.

It is more important for a public person to be seen to be tough and rich than to be human. It is more important to raise thousands of dollars in one court appearance to get a known killer out on bail, because the law allows it. The public chaos it will create is unimportant. When that killer murders while out on bail, his lawyer will simply be paid more, and he will be granted his legal right to ‘walk free’. The gang will have his back; the enemy gang will be after him, and anyone caught up in the cross fire, oh well, too bad. This is social breakdown. We know this is happening, but we have also become desensitised to it.

Many of these youth who are angry, are angry and disaffected because they grew up in abusive homes where either mommy or daddy, or both, did not give a damn about them, and would tell them this very clearly.

They were told every day how hated they were, how they should be dead, how dumb they were. They were sexually molested and or pimped out to help pay the rent. They were used by mommy’s boyfriend. This type of social breakdown is met by public officials who boast about their bad behaviour and use the system to enrich themselves. These are then youth who view social media and popular music videos that promote violence, glamorise drugs, unemployment and violence against women, denigrate women and tell the youth they can get whatever they want by simply taking it.

They are welcomed by the gangs and find a home in a group that accepts them, valorises their ability to be ruthless and builds on this be making them even more aggressive and violent as they must now defend their family.

This is what is classified as culturally accepted or hegemonic masculinity today in the Bahamas. To lie is accepted, to steal is condoned and to be violent and abrasive, loud and murderous is celebrated. When they shoot to kill in a nearby community, understand that the law will work so that they will be sent out on bail, the lawyers will be granted a small fortune, and the ankle bracelet will only mean that they can boast about this thing around their leg; it brings more attention to their success as tough guys. To have a few murders under one’s belt is a sign of success in this life. When the law begins to endorse such cultural and social breakdown we know that we are in trouble. We will hear more bang, bang, bang!