Bahama Coat of Arms
The Bahamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration has released a travel advisory for Bahamians traveling to the United States of America, where ethnic violence has and continues to plague the nation. The travel advisory begins, "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration has taken a note of the recent tensions in some American cities over shootings of young black males by police officers."
A slew of indiscriminate and racially motivated killings of black citizens at the hands of heavily armed law enforcement agents, caught on cell phone camera, has rocked the country of over 300 million people. According to The Guardian, 569 people have been killed by law enforcement this year alone. 136 of those were Black, a startling number considering African Americans are only around thirteen percent of the total U.S. population. The Bahamas is a largely black nation, with the overwhelming majority identifying as African or Afro-Bahamian.
The rampant racial bias within U.S. law enforcement agencies was exemplified by the recent killing of 32-year-old Philando Castile in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. According to an audio recording from a police scan obtained by KARE 11, a local affiliate of NBC, the law enforcement agents that initially pulled Castile over suspected he was involved in a robbery because of his, "wide-set nose." A physical attribute many white Americans negatively associate with Blacks. The recording has yet to be verified.
Read the travel advisory from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office below and make sure to take precaution while in the U.S.
Particularly if you are black.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration has taken a note of the recent tensions in some American cities over shootings of young black males by police officers.At the commencement of the Independence holiday weekend, many Bahamians will no doubt use the opportunity to travel, in particular to destinations in the United States.
We wish to advise all Bahamians traveling to the US but especially to the affected cities to exercise appropriate caution generally. In particular young males are asked to exercise extreme caution in affected cities in their interactions with the police. Do not be confrontational and cooperate.
If there is any issue please allow consular offices for The Bahamas to deal with the issues. Do not get involved in political or other demonstrations under any circumstances and avoid crowds.
The Bahamas has consular offices in New York, Washington, Miami and Atlanta and honorary consuls in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago and Houston."
