Jamaica Kincaid's Anti-Christian, Nonsensical Remarks About Haiti and Capitalism

Writer Jamaica Kincaid has a long tradition of embarrassing comments at my college, Claremont McKenna, where she is a professor of literature. Remember, though, before you insist on calling her Professor Kincaid, that she only has a high school degree.

Her essay, A Small Place, is written about her native Antigua and attacks British civilization and capitalism itself. The most revealing selection from that essay? Here it is, from pages 36 to 37 as she is discussing that the white colonizer is to blame for the very corrupt government of Antigua.

You will forget your part in the whole setup, that bureaucracy is one of your inventions, that Gross National Product is one of your inventions, and all the laws that you know mysteriously favour you. Do you know why people like me are shy about being capitalists? Well, it’s because we, for as long as we have known you, were capital, like bales of cotton and sacks of sugar, and you were the commanding, cruel capitalists, and the memory of this is so strong, the experience so recent, that we can’t bring ourselves to embrace this idea that you think so much of. As for what we were like before we met you, I no longer care. No periods of time over my ancestors held sway, no documentation of complex civilizations, is any comfort to me. Even if I really came from people who were living like monkeys in trees, it was better to be that than what happened to me, what I became after I met you.

And so yes, she’s teaches writing at a college whose motto is “civilization prospers with commerce,” even though it looks like she’s in favor of neither.

Kincaid’s most recent comments to students at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne highlight why she should never have been brought to teach and show just how much academia tolerates anti-Christian language, at the same time it condemns virtually every other kind of “ism.”

Here are a few paragraphs from an article describing her visit.

While speaking to the media Thursday, the author and professor started reflecting on a trip to Haiti two years ago and wondered why it took an earthquake for the United States to pay attention to the impoverished nation.

An IPFW employee responded by saying there were a number of American church groups and mission organizations that had been in the country for years trying to help.

“I think, on the whole, church groups should be banned from these places,” said Kincaid, a native of Antigua.

1. The United States and the international community has spent $4 billion in foreign aid payments to Haiti since 1990. U.S. contributions from 1990 to 2005 totaled $1.5 billion. There are only 8 million Haitians, so you do the math. And that’s not talking about all the money given since. So the idea that the U.S. hasn’t given Haiti anything is just not true. You can argue — and believe me, I do — that foreign aid hasn’t done anything of good in these places, but you can’t argue that it hasn’t been tried.

2. There have been millions pouring into Haiti from church groups. As of January 21, 2010, some $305 million has been raised to help Haiti, much of it from religious sources. Allow me to quote from the Chronicle of Philanthropy‘s editor, Stacy Palmer,

“You’ve got a bad economy and a disaster outside of the U.S.,” said Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. “It makes sense that lots of people gave to the Katrina disaster in the U.S., but to give outside of the U.S. like this is remarkable, especially at a time with 10% unemployment.”

Just imagine how bad it would be if religious groups weren’t giving. But that’s not all.

Many Haitians follow Voodoo as their religion. Christian groups don’t like it and are only in the country to try to spread Christianity, she said.

“Their main reason for going there is to eradicate this belief,” Kincaid said.

Kincaid said she was worried her sentiments would offend people. She said she hadn’t planned to talk about Haiti at all but couldn’t help herself.

No, their main reason is concern for the poor — which is a Biblical imperative. “Couldn’t help herself” to be bigoted against an entire group of people trying to do what they perceive is the right thing?

Of course the truly laughable moment comes at the end of the article:

One student asked Kincaid how she balances writing with the job of getting published and making appearances. She advised the students they need to write for themselves, not an audience or money.

That’s funny. Why is then that curriculum committee approved a course with the idea of leveraging Ms. Kincaid’s contacts as they position themselves in the publishing world? It seems as if they are being good capitalists, after all.