Social imperialism in the CNMI

I wanted to wait until after the election to speak about this because it would have only inflamed the election fever more. But first, I want to congratulate our new governor and all the other winners. There were several things that came to light, for TRUE, in this past election that proved what I had been thinking all along. Even though this is America, the CNMI has created a “class” system based on ethnicity and your country of origin. While I commend the indigenous people for creating the I.D. cards for themselves it seems the concept has served to breed biasness and even racism, which was not the intent I’m sure. I understood the I.D. cards to be a means of identification not a “status” symbol in society. But it is apparent certain people have already gone overboard by paying for advertisements that promotes racism. The full-page advertisement telling people to “vote for locals only” did just that, promoted racism and it goes against the principle of “equality,” it’s a slap in the face to the 1964 Civil Rights ACT (race, creed, color or religion) and everything we are teaching children in school. We are teaching students to base their vote on “the candidates track record, the facts-not opinions and their qualifications.” Telling people to vote for someone just because they are a certain race is pure RACISISM, for TRUE!

The people behind the ad are promoting the social imperialism that already existed in the CNMI and now they have gotten BOLD and no body wants to talk about it but I can’t and I won’t just sit and watch racism being taught to our youth. If you look at the class system that has evolved in the CNMI it is easy to identify the traits of social imperialism. At the top of our society in the CNMI we have the locals, second is the OTHER U.S. citizens and at the bottom we have the alien workers whom some indigenous people seem to like making jokes about. But its not funny to me because I know what its like to be on the bottom of the totem pole in society as a black man in the Civil Rights Movement and locals that were on the mainland during those days should know too because they were also treated like blacks.

Another trait of social imperialism surfaced when a candidate said, “he would win because he had the biggest family.” If that statement isn’t imperialistic or worse, I don’t know what is. I have a lot of respect for him and I’m sure he couldn’t have known all the implications of this statement but it needs to be set straight. I perceived it as, his family being supreme and it didn’t matter what the rest of the people in the CNMI did when they voted or what they thought about him. His statement was a real insult to me since I’m not a member of his family and I’m sure thousands of other people that voted are not apart of his family.

These bold and public examples of racism and family superiority have clearly demonstrated that social imperialism exist at high levels and that the CNMI still has a long ways to go when it comes to equality and respect for all people living in the CNMI. The continuous attempts to progress the quality of life for ONLY the indigenous people while maintaining the status quo for the rest of our society is a terrible practice and counter productive to achieving prosperity for the CNMI as a whole. I hope this has opened a few eyes to what is really taking place and why we can’t get ahead as a people. We are one society and until equal opportunities truly exist for everyone and we start acting like one people and start working together like one people for what is BEST—“Better Times” may still be out of reach for EVERYONE in the CNMI. And speaking of Better Times, it is TIME for everyone to let the goodness in them prevail to support the new governor. We are vastly divided and we must end the political fighting like sore losers because now more than ever before we (the CNMI) truly need everyone to be: One government and one people headed in one direction.

Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman