COMMENTARY: The Tribal factor in Virgin Islands Politics

By Dickson Igwe, Contributor

This investigative writer wannabe adopts the culture of the criminal investigator in deciding what political group is likely to win the Virgin Islands General Election in a number of months.

As stated in the preceding narrative, dots are the raw data of the investigator, and are gathered at the crime scene and thereabouts: the hard evidence.

When these dots link logically with others in the crime a narrative begins to form. That narrative points to motive, opportunity and forensic evidence that weighs into a specific direction.

The crime is solved if the investigator is thorough, scientific and perceptive.

The dots from the preceding story were the selfish nature of Virgin Islands voters, the anger at the GREEDY BILL, incomplete infrastructure increasing that anger, money as key motivator of the Virgin Islands politician not any loyalty to country, and the near impossible nature of making a credible prediction with inadequate math in the form of statistics and polling.

The next dot that will assessed is the tribal dot.

Human beings are tribal animals. They move in packs like wolves. That is where the experts got it wrong in the USA in predicting Kamala Harris would win the US Presidential Election in 2024.

The experts omitted the tribal element.

Racism, envy at the establishment by working-class whites, anger with mass migration, and the idea of a black female, the preceding is what propelled a racist and insurrectionist into the White House. Ignore tribe at your peril.

The Virgin Islands is a caste system. Ancestral Virgin Islands with parents on both sides having their own ancestors going back into the 1800s are at the top of that caste system. These are folk who also tend to be landowners resulting from that reality.

The second tier are those who have one parent that is an ancestral Virgin Islander.

At the bottom are those born in the Virgin Islands of expatriate parents and those who obtained citizenship by tenure and other means.

Politicians call it the race card. It is a dangerous card to play as one well known politician was alleged to play that card some years back and got a political ‘’hiding’’ as a result.

Presently an assessment of the dots and very tenuous links places the incumbents at an advantage. However, there is all to play for in this game of political power.