Bahamian Government Schools vs Bahamian Private Schools (The Endless Waltz)

By Drew

 

So its ’02 in Halifax and I’m in love with Janice.

White girl, blonde, athlete…..she checked all the boxes for a dude drenched in Abercrombie, dirty jeans and flip flops. By all accounts it “made sense” when you saw us together.

“He loves me because he assumes I’ll be less stress and I love him because he’s the exact amount of danger I need in my life right now” #WeWereBothWrong

I remember bringing her home to the Bahamas and someone taking a jab at me stating, “you could tell he been to private school….they only like white girls”. 

It made me take a step back.

First off, I LOVE white women….to say “like” discredits my passion for them. But, beloved, I love ALL women. So I love white women, black women, Asian women, Haitian women, hoes, Jamaican women, etc. ALL women with the same energy, son.

I would juice 80% of these gals because vagina is delicious and should be eaten. TF?

It was this moment and many moments like this where stereotypes and assumptions were the order of the day. Not only to myself but to government school kids/alumni as well and I think we need to address the ongoing war on this island between Bahamian government schools vs private schools.

We are presently living the end of this shitty story so it would behoove us to start at the beginning. We, as a people, were never like this. Classism and elitism were never as big of an issue as it is now because EVERYONE was broke. My mother is 74 and she went to GHS (Government High School)…

I’ll give y’all old heads a moment to get off on that because apparently GHS was a big deal for that generation…

“LoL those other poor black kids that also can’t afford to go to QC sure are worse than us for reasons we can’t qualify…lets mock them!!”

Government high, at the time, was THE school to attend if you couldn’t afford anything else.

Now, lets be clear: Niggas is niggas.

For my foreign readers, all that statement means is that no matter the time, generation or climate….niggas will do niggardly shit.

…yes, even in the snow the niggadry is strong

See?

I say that to say, even then my mother told me tales of black crab syndrome, bullying, classism etc. You let people know your family was less broke than theirs. But, in general, she has always stated it was NEVER on the level that it is now. Now there is a divide between us and within that divide is an ugliness that we have to rid ourselves of.

Hear me and hear me well: Most Private school kids/alumni thought, at one point in their lives, that they were better than or grateful to not have been a government school kid.

Lets just be honest.

“You must not go there, Simba…thats RM Baily and they already covered in red so they aren’t afraid of blood…its their goddamn uniform!”

And in the same vein: Most government school kids thought they could either single handedly beat several private school kids in a fight or legit just attend the school for that day and be the hardest/realest nigga/gal walking.

Thank God we don’t have American public school issues cause trust me, all y’all government school niggas would be on manners thinking its a game bullying these “white” kids.

“After years of Jaekwonado’s teasing….Phillip decided he had had enough…” #RespectTheShooter”

I personally remember my mother threatening that if my grades didn’t improve I would be attending LW Young the following year. That used to scare the shit out of me because in my mind the only thing that went down there was unplanned pregnancy and murder. My stupid young mind never thought of them as anything more than a subcategory because I had been conditioned, by my peers and family, to believe that they were just different from us.

Now, that being said, I used to have to walk to my grandmothers house, from Kingsway to Mount Royal Avenue, and I dreaded walking past that school because they would tease my sisters and I.

“Big time Kingsway chirren walkin?!?!?! Y’all limo broke aye?!!! Lets rob the chubby one!”

And who could blame them?

They too were taught that we were differen; Perhaps softer, perhaps easier targets….Or perhaps that we thought that we were better than them.

Who knows?

The only point I’m making is that we were wrong….ALL of us were wrong.

Even to this day I see people lying about what school they went to. Not kids, grown ass adults who try and fit in to certain circles and try and play the alumni card to infiltrate them.

Um, nigga….we know.

You can use that sweet valley high voice all you want, babygirl/sir, we know you went to CR Walker….which I’m told is the private school of government schools apparently.

Hi, its me, Drew. I know 0 about any of these government school references I’m making outside of the words of a few friends to give insight to this article. Please feel free to correct me on my assumptions and inferences for the betterment of my own understanding and the community at large. Blessings!

I know niggas right now that put on like they come from wealth and circumstance and dress the part and try and act like archetypes of how they THINK private school kids act.

lol….We know who you are and you’re wrong, kiddo. We see you.

I didn’t grow up poor by any means. I will never be ashamed of the sacrifices my parents made for me to go to a private school….BUT…..ween had half the shit a lot of you public school kids had, trust me. I’ve never owned a pair of Jordans in my life, we walked home when my cousins couldn’t pick us up and yes, I was one of those kids where my fees were paid a week to a month late.

Don’t act like its just me, beloved.

Me, pretending like I don’t see the principal asking me to pack my things and come to her office due to unpaid fees

Half y’all have kids now and going to Commonwealth Bank once a term to borrow money for a school you can’t afford, for a child you never intended to have, to impress people who don’t even fuck with you like that.

“I can’t afford this brunch or these drinks because of crippling debt but LiL Trojania is doing marginally well in St Andrews so that’s all that matters”

And lets not act like ALL private schools were safe and clean and not dangerous as balls from time to time.

Um, remember BBC?

For those that don’t remember, Bahamas Baptist College was the private school that private schools used as a bucket to place all their violent kids. That’s not their official stance but every private school kid knows someone who went to that school that either murdered someone or punched a teacher in the face because their dad didn’t hug them enough. I legit think it was a part of their recruitment process.

“Your son has only been accused of selling weed and thats just not enough….if it was pure uncut Colombian cocaine he may have slid in but…..”

And public school peeps, lets not act like y’all wasn’t juicing our girls and or taking full advantage of our boys. Public school girls are the females that created Drake and I stand by that theory.

You’re trying to tell me this nigga doesn’t look like a Queens College student dating a gal from Doris Johnson named “Toya”?

I remember vividly what them government school niggas did to me and my self esteem with their Hondas and their charm and their “bad boy” confidence. Private school girls would entertain us but they REALLY fucked with the public school niggas.

I’m lying? lol….K

Question: How many times have I mentioned in articles or Harrison Thompson mentioned in statuses/videos “..niggas who drive Hondas….”? And Harrison is light skin so for him to be slighted means shit must have been REALLY real.

The 1998 Honda Civic EX….the lightskin niggas only known predator #StayWoke

 

Its because they were the niggas with ALL the gals and they just so happened to all have attended Government school

The pain still lingers and we have NEVER gotten over that shit, beloved.

The irony is, when we break it down to its raw elements, in the end we are all the same. And not in the “we all bleed” way….tha’ts lazy. I mean in a human way. We all got bullied, we all failed tests, we all hated going to school, etc.

We all know rich or well off people that put their kids through public school just because its fiscally responsible the same way we know struggling families that have their kids in private school as we speak. I know government school kids that went to Disney world annually while the only Disney I got was on TV.

Just kidding, we also couldn’t afford satellite or cable so we watched Neighbors at 3:30pm the way God intended.

 

Lets not forget that 3 government school niggas ran this country for years. You may not have liked Pindling, Christie or (the good) Hubert, but the country has evolved to this point and gratitude should be the order of the day.

Meanwhile, at SAC, this was growing and getting ready to hurt us…

If this nigga keeps fucking up we may need to supplement SAC with Aquinas in the hierarchy to maintain balance #DontArgueWithMe #BlameSAC

Listen, I get it: We were kids and that’s what kids do.

They try to find themselves and they go near what they relate to. They follow the masses and group think is king. But as adults, it boggles my mind that we still play this game. If a gal look good, working, and has common sense do you really think I care what school she went to or what economic class she was in back in the goddamn 90’s?

Bruh…its 2018…shit doesn’t matter.

Once she didnt go to Westminister, which I thnk we can all agree is just a cult, who cares?

I bring this up because I see a lot of pretenders. I’m seeing people on social media, in fashion, bloggers and just every day folk out here pretending and disguising themselves as something they’re not. That is not how you talk, beloved. Shit, thats not how WE talk.

Hey, private school guy, you know nothing of fighting in school or “the struggle”.  Its insulting that you chose that as a way to relate to someone that’s probably smarter than you and doing better than you.

“Want us to put on some Sizzla Kolanji or perhaps some Vybez Kartel for ya, Jamal? You like that stuff right?”

Classism in this country is real and I think y’all niggas forget……the VAT increase takes effect next week.

This is not consensual, this is an orgy…..everyone’s about to get screwed.

We’re ALL about to be broke and have to make decisions we truly didn’t think we would have to. For someone that wanted their kid to go to a private school, those plans may have to be altered. And, the converse, if your dad or mom happen to invest in airplanes, helicopters or a corned beef emporium, then you’re about to come into some money and maybe allow your child to attend a private school. Either way its how you train your kids; its what you teach them. Teach them that we are ALL in this together. That circumstances do not dictate outcomes. That if we don’t come together now, private, Public and Westminster…..if we don’t resolve these issues….

…then we will never be able to determine just what category to put Prince William cause we’re not claiming them and neither have the public schools.

But I digress.

 

Be safe tho.

 

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