The Editor, Sir:

The Letter of the Day captioned, 'Blacks, not whites, should apologise for slavery' and written by Xavier Newton-Bryant certainly made my day and I must also say kudos to The Gleaner for publishing that piece of truism. Someone has to speak the truth at sometime or other. Indeed, the white men were unable to go in the bushes and find the black men and so it was the black men who mercilessly hunted their black brothers and sold them.

I am of East Indian origin and like Jamaicans of African decent of whom Mr. Bryant spoke, I am very glad to be in Jamaica. I have to say thanks to those Indians who came here as indentured labourers, whether they were promised a better life or sold. Had it not been for them, I would have been born in India and would have had to face one of the worst class prejudice in the world known as the caste system where Indians are prejudiced against Indians. The Hindu caste system is more than 3,000 years old and indeed, India must be deemed still very uncivilised if the illegality of the caste system cannot be enforced.

Succeeding governments are unable to change that system, and even after five decades of independence, there remains a line of demarcation among citizens.

I am, etc.,

ELVENA (SINGH) WILLIAMS REITTIE

elvena@cwjamaica.com