20 Mar NiteCap Journal: Is the Virgin Islands the real Wakanda?

Close your eyes.

Now imagine islands so enchanting that if you do believe in creation, you must know that God took His time crafting them. 

Don’t open your eyes yet. Dream some more with me, because given the current state of affairs we can all use an escape to a place where racism, consumerism and pollution hasn’t yet killed the human spirit. 

Enter the Virgin Islands. 

Of course, like many Virgin Islanders growing up, I never saw how magical we truly are. I’m sure many of you read the headline and said, “Wha Petah talking about…he crazy or wah?!” No, I’m more clear-minded than I’ve ever been in my life. It’s because loss has a way of forcing us to drink from the sobering cup of reckoning. 

I lost three uncles this past year. My Uncle Herbert died from COVID while saving lives working as a nurse in the Bronx. He told us, “If God’s will is that I die helping people so be it.” He was gone a few weeks later. Uncle Hamilton, a brilliant chemist and mathematician, died exactly six months after Herbert’s passing. Now, I’m headed to Los Angeles this week to bury their eldest brother Rudy, a theologian and former college dean of African-American studies. 

How do I console my mother after she lost all three of her brothers? These are sobering times indeed. I’m still figuring that out. 

Like so many other Caribbean dreamers, my mother and her siblings left Anguilla and Curacao for the Virgin Islands in pursuit of a better life. She would eventually became the head nurse in charge of the intensive care unit at the hospital in St. Thomas. My father made a similar journey from Trinidad before producing his own top rated radio show “The Sky Pilots” on WSTA and founding several churches. 

It’s because the United States Virgin Islands is arguably the only place in America where a self-governing Black majority lead politically, culturally and economically. In other words, those who look like me cut the checks and make the laws in this modern prosperous and politically stable society.

In fact, most recently I had the honor of working alongside our lawmakers to pass a bill that ultimately created the Office of Gun Violence Prevention under the Office of the Governor, a first in the Caribbean. A violent crime rate was the fallout of creating a modern cosmopolitan society nestled in paradise. 

Nevertheless, in typical VI fashion, we’re handling these issues internally as a collective and that may be the most magical aspect of being a Virgin Islander. Each of us gets to actively partake in drafting our history. When you grow up with leaders who look like you pride is developed early on. When your local policeman and policewoman is essentially you, the concept of police brutality is as foreign as the many languages spoken in our community. 

“I always say we have the most diverse 100,000 people on the planet,” boasts USVI Governor Albert Bryan in “Paradise Discovered: The Unbreakable Virgin Islanders 2.0”, the upcoming sequel to my first Unbreakable film. 

He’s right and as America’s only Black Governor, our view on diversity may be the most magical aspect of our society. We see diversity as strength. 

I’ve lived half my life in the USVI and the other half in the continental United States, in other words, as a Black man I’ve experienced firsthand the oppression and downright inhumanity faced by Blacks while living in a white majority led society. In fact, go anywhere in the world where people of color exist under a white majority rule and you’ll most likely see inequality and injustice. 

Ask any of the non-Black minorities residing in our islands if they’ve ever had a cop put his or her knee on their necks?  

Trust me, our graciousness towards outsiders has zero to do with fear from federal intervention. President Biden couldn’t send an army to our islands fast enough if we chose to evoke the ghosts of Fort Berg. Our all consuming humanity is what keeps order not the rule of law; understanding that we’re stronger together. 

Hollywood did our ancestors an injustice by creating the fantasy of “Wakanda” – that fictional kingdom depicted in the film “Black Panther” – and disregarding the actual place. 

You can open your eyes now, but please continue to dream. 

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