Racist tourists bypassing local boat captains – Julio S. Henry
Mr Henry raised the topic on the Tuesday, June 4, 2019, edition of ‘Hard Talk’ on Tola Radio VI where he noted that the government and other officials need to investigate the situation and ensure that it does not continue to happen.
Gov’t need to step in – Mr Henry
“A lot of companies [yacht charters] now… are accepting reservations from racist customers who are demanding that the captain looks like them coming to a Caribbean country, where the population is predominantly black and you want a white captain,” he told the listening audience and guest host Rosemary R. Rosan-Jones aka 'Cindy'.
According to Henry, “Personally I think the government needs to recognise these things are happening" and have a conversation with yacht charters.
He said charter companies need to understand and recognise the identity of the VI as a nation, and that if tourists don’t want to deal with that ‘identity’ they shouldn’t come.
Henry, who also works as a taxi operator, implored, “A lot of them [Tourists] are actually traveling with their captains… when you see multiple entries from the same individual two or three times within the year, and they're here with different groups of people, they are working.”
Tourists are networking
“I just had some customers who been here now… and I know just listening to their conversation they actually working,” he said.
“So the people them, now are probably networking through the system and they have [a] list of captains, who are willing to come, that looks like them,” the Tola Radio VI host revealed.
“They pay for their trips and everything to come down, they rent the boat [and] that person drives the boat as if they are part of the guest list,” Henry further revealed in urging Her Majesty's Customs to urgently look into the situation.
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29 Responses to “Racist tourists bypassing local boat captains – Julio S. Henry”
They are beating the system.
One and the same if u ask me.
I don't support either.
I WORK FOR A CHARTER COMPANY AND WE NEVER HAD SUCH REQUEST.ALL YOUR GUYS ARE DOING IS FUELING HATE BETWEEN BLACKS AND WHITES.
What the article says is correct N*** and the charter companies have records of this, the same guy being the Capt of the boat multiple times with different people each time. I know this as a fact as I deal with these people ww=ho arrive for a few weeks at a time and each week with different guests.
But please Lord stop painting all white people as racists and make out like they are all working against black people.
Some charter guests demand local captains! Some local captains are black, some from down islands so they are not local but they can give guests their knowledge of the islands and Caribbean culture.
Some captains of all colours are real bad. Some charter captains who are local do not engage with the guests, they sit at the front of the boat and don't bother trying to make friends with them (why? Maybe because everyone's telling them all white people are racists) and many just want to go home every night so they take guests to anchorages near their home.
Point is - you guys have a disease of making blackness and whiteness the only way of judging every situation that happens here! There are complexities and if you deny them, you deny reality. There are bad captains, bad (racist) tourists but there are good local captains and good people who happen to have caucasian skin.
Stop racialising everything or you will miss the real problems we face that need serious thought.
Mr. Henry is right..there are those who bring their own Captains....but it is not racially motivated.
there is not an easy solutution to this.......leasing a boat and subleasing it is not wrong. being paid as a captain and not having the nessesary licenses / work permit is.
For example, about a year ago, two knuckle heads parade a Confederate flag across the St. Thomas harbour. Another one also in St. Thomas was shouting that she hated Black people and was encouraged to leave the territory, for staying was not in the best interest for her health and well-being. Dem think they own Water Island and it is off limit to Blacks and do everything to make them feel unwelcome. The demonstrated behaviour is locals fault; they put some people on pedestals. All hands need to get involved to ensure that the majority of the local population is not insulted in their own homeland. Ever since the Electoral College, an archaic, anachronistic process, elected the stable genius, some people feel embolden and have gotten more brazen. They are cruising (no pun intentred) for a b.....g; a “cumbuya.” The BVI should roll out the welcome mat but if you are racist don’t even think about coming either by air or sea. Your passport is already stamped DENIED. Cuz thanks for exposing this nastiness.
@ racist: that why your dead @$% on your knees to hold the BVI passport: you will sooner kill your self the second immigration ask you to leave this place but have a set of talk: full of talk up in this BVI.....we already hear better dogs than you bark: the cancellation of that fast track going to your head
So enough with the taxi man bashing please!
If the travel media was straight - if they wrote news and not fake stories for advertisers - they would have a huge story here that would kill BVI tourism dead. BVIslanders need to think about that. Tourism is our only serious economic 'pillar'. So far, thank God, it remains the territory's little secret.
When I think of local captains, I think of Gumption. That man gives excellent service, and he is very busy during the season. He has excellent reviews, and the people come back to him every year. He is doing something right.