The island nation of Aruba has unleashed an all-out ad blitz on the MTA trains, running short bios of smiling Arubans on beaches, golf courses, and serene Oranjestad streets lined with colorful knockoffs of Dutch colonials. But only one of the seven ads features a local who is black. I was getting amped to rip into Fox News and Nancy Grace and redneck southern politicians for their catalytic roles in the blatantly racist Natalee Holloway fiasco, to illustrate how they’ve driven Aruba to ostracize its black residents through a disproportionately representative ad campaign propelled by the notion that black equals crime. Then I did some research, and was surprised to find that my angle held no water on several counts:
- Due to the island’s arid soil and lack of rainfall, imperialists didn’t try to cultivate Aruba, hence no slaves (to console itself, Spain kidnapped every single Arawak on the island and shipped them to work copper mines on Hispaniola). Thus, a much lower percentage of Arubans claim African heritage than do other Caribbean nationalities -- Trinidadians, Jamaicans, even the folks in neighboring Curaçao.
- Tourism is huge in Aruba. I knew it was important, as it is in every other island on the Carnival cruise highway, but the health of Aruba’s GDP relies more on tourism dollars than on any other industry. And the country’s dependance on tourism is growing stronger: The second-biggest industry is oil refining. With the realization that oil’s a finite resource, Aruba has quintupled its stock of hotel rooms since 1985. In 2004 (before Missing White Girl broke), Aruba filled an average of 80 percent of those rooms, compared with 68 percent in other Caribbean hotspots. They needed tourists before her, and they still need them now.
- None of the three suspects arrested was black (one was Dutch and the other two were Surinamese). Likewise, none was ever charged.
And to further that note on a note, the Holloway dad is some piece of work. In his book, he criticizes the media for being fickle after they bumped his daughter to the bottom of the hour when a juicier story broke:
“Hurricane Katrina had left the door open for the (suspects) to be sent on their way with little publicity and few restrictions because it took the world's focus off of Natalee, but only for a brief time. The huge amount of publicity had waned and, during that time of quiet for us, Joran and the Kalpoe brothers were sent home. . . . All of the news shows that had followed our every move only a day before had now become fixated on the next big ratings grabber: the victims of Hurricane Katrina.”
What manipulative bastards.
But Father Holloway’s justified criticism is beside the point: My expected angle fell flat. In the end, I had nothing. The ad campaign isn’t necessarily racist because it’s actually somewhat representative of Aruba’s population. But if it had proved as racist as I’d expected, I would have said this: “Those two black guys were clearly selected specifically to make the rider think, ‘They look happy and peaceful. I'd bet 4-to-1 they used to hang out with the guys from Cool Runnings till they all realized there wasn't enough room in the bobsled.’"
Then you would’ve laughed and laughed, and I would’ve congratulated myself. Close your eyes. Try to imagine. Or just read this guy’s take (unless he’s got a Lonely Planet: Aruba chum on the Aruban census team, he twisted the ethnic numbers to make the case).
