Violence

Reino 7 November 1994: Het geweld neemt een rare plaats in op Jamaica. Het is er zeker. Er zijn verhalen van een zekere goldtooth die zoveel kwaads gedaan heeft dat zelfs de politie er nu wat aan wil doen. Wetend dat hij en zijn bende ten dode staan opgeschreven is het helemaal uit de hand gelopen. Het zijn echte desperados geworden, slapend overdag en moordend gedurende de nachten, trekken ze het land door en vullen het eindeloze babbel en gepraat van de buitenlanders in hun gouden kooien. David is ooit door een grote rots geraakt die door een jonge man in de bosjes werd gegooid. Als ik 's-avonds onze werkster Ivatna naar huis breng laat ze me haar afzetten in een klein steegje dat uiteindelijk naar haar huis zal leiden. Elke keer zegt ze dat ik op de terugweg niet mag stoppen en geen mensen een lift mag geven. En dan loopt ze de schaduwen in van de huisjes van blik en spullen.

“personal behaviour is criticised at most as a side-effect of political practice, an inadequacy of performance in relation to the competence of political ideals.” (Kappeler, 1995:12)

“In its measurable damage we see the proof that violence has taken place.” (Kappeler, 1995:2)

"violence is not a phenomenon, it is the behaviour of people. What is missing is an analysis of violence as action." (Kappeler, 1995:2)

“Some left groups have tried to explain men’s sexual violence as the result of class oppression, while some Black theoreticians have explained the violence of Black men as the result of racist oppression. The ostensible aim of these arguments may be to draw attention to the pervasive and structural violence of classicism and racism, yet they not only fail to combat such inequality, the actively contribute to it. Although such oppression is a very real part of an agent’s life context, these ‘explanations’ ignore the fact that not everyone experiencing the same oppression uses violence, that is, that these circumstances do not ‘cause’ violent behaviour. They overlook in other words that the perpetrator has decided to violate, even if this decision was made in circumstances of limited choice.

To overlook this decision however, is itself a political decision, serving particular interests. In the first instance it serves to exonerate the perpetrators, whose responsibility is thus transferred to circumstances and a history for which other people (who remain beyond reach) are responsible. Moreover it helps to stigmatise all those living in poverty and oppression; because they are obvious victims of violence and oppression, they are held to be potential perpetrators themselves. This slanders all the women who have experienced sexual violence, yet do not use violence against others, and libels those experiencing racist and class oppression, yet do not act out violence. Far from supporting those oppressed by classist, racist or sexist oppression, it sells out these entire groups in the interest of exonerating individual members. It is a version of collective victim-blaming, of stigmatising entire social strata as potential hotbeds of violence, which rests on and perpetuates the mainstream division of society into so-called marginal groups.” (Kappeler, 1995: 3)