UN General Assembly
2016

There was a picture of a little black boy in the Oval Office of the United States. In the picture, the President is bending down and allowing that boy to touch his hair. The little boy, it seemed, wanted to be sure that someone like him with hair like his was actually the President of the United States. That is the background against which people of African descent encounter negativity all around the world. Thousands of little black boys and girls in the Bahamas have taken the success of the President of the United States as an affirmation of hope. The wave of shootings by police officers in the United States must not be allowed to damage that image of that country. We think that it is imperative for our closest neighbour, the United States, to understand that in the International Decade for People of African Descent it must do the right thing.