Once derogatory, the term dougla has now become so accepted that people have started calling all manner of mixed-race people Dougla... and it’s not fair.

I expressed as much to an American Caucasian woman professor who came to do a study on the douglas of T&T.

The year before she’d done the same on what she called the Black Caribs of Columbia; and overall she seemed rather fascinated by peoples who defied effortless bracketing.

Her husband was, incidentally, Trini — of a Spanish/African hybrid — and their three rug-rats were suitably something else from what’s easily defined; no doubt destined to eventually face the question asked of anyone not readily pinned down on the ethnic portfolio: “What are you?”

This professor was conducting interviews with douglas of assorted ilk: sex, age, class and education brackets, each with their own history of experiences despite shared miscegenation ground.

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pick the foreigner’s mouth about her interview findings, intrigued as I was to learn for myself whether douglas in this country claim to be “one common people.”

I gave her a straight-up expression of disapproval one time, though not at her, but at my countrymen, who persisted in “assuring” her that her children are dougla.

As I mentioned before, the word has now come to compass any individual with more than any one bloodline; and that, to me, is simply not acceptable nor healthy, for want of a better word.

It is, however, inevitable, in a country that allowed it’s national instrument — the only one invented in the 20th century, to boot — to be hapsed up for mass production by Japanese companies, while we waggle over the defects of standardising the pan.

See, T&T is most laissez-faire about most anything that involves creating cultural clarity by putting things in their proper place and perspective.

Anyone who wants to argue the importance of accuracy, think of how shoddy history lessons would be if nobody ever thought to record things as squarely as possible.

Why, I recall at the first distinguished lecture series put on by the President’s Committee For National Self-discovery, the Carib King of Arima and environs (well, actually, he’d be the Carib King of T&T, really) talked vehemently against the “marginalisation” of Carib ancestors into other race and ethnic brackets.

One of those he mentioned was dougla. The Carib king was most agitated at his people being called dougla.

I was taken aback in turn, because the fact is that many Carib descendants, myself included, can more accurately be called dougla than Carib.

Yet, he saw it as a put-down. Clearly because he himself considers douglas to be a marginalised bunch. Which, to tell the truth, is how we are often treated.

See, while people would tell some white foreign female, for God knows whatever reason, that her mostly white/partly coloured kids are douglas, actual douglas like myself are often reproached to call ourselves African, Indian, Spanish, Carib or whatever else people choose to call us.

Because despite the appearance of things nowadays, there’s still a large fraction of people in our nation who are uncomfortable with the thought of different races mixing; thus are especially discomfited by the “aberrant,” “marginalised” dougla progeny of all the mixing that’s supposedly not, but most definitely is, happening.

There are hordes of “Trinibagonians” — yes, yes, even among the so-called current fathers of our nation — who insist that, for instance, Indians and Africans will never unite.

To acknowledge the existence of masses of douglas would be basically to admit that a whole bunch of Indians and Africans not only united, but had sex and — voila! — there’s another dougla to contend with.

And we just can’t have that, can we. I mean, people might be tempted to stop voting based on race, and where will our racist politicians be?

I’ll tell you: out...of...jobs.

Come good.Tomorrow’s Brew: