Racing Development: Violence, Race and Gender in Trinidad and Tobago

Although the Caribbean has the second largest population of people of African descent outside of Africa, the ways that race, specifically blackness, intersect and shape experiences of GBV and prevention programmes is significantly under-explored. The UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 (UNSDG5) promotes gender equality, yet critics argue that development and its goals are structured around the reproduction and extension of difference, inequality, exclusion and exploitation (Wilson, 2017; White 2002). Thus, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), with its conspicuously diverse population (including African, Asian, Indigenous, European and Creole) is the case study. This research aims to: explore how race, gender and violence intersect in T&T and identify the impact it has on organisations mitigating GBV and individuals experiencing violence.

This research builds from my MSc dissertation which located formations of racialised disempowerment for Afro-Brazilian women's activists such as intra-social groups practicing colourism and national agendas that historically silence the violent, racialised realities of black women. As a part of my Master's I received mentoring from GBV-intervention specialists and completed the module Public Affairs, International Development and Gendered Violence (Distinction). As a Vincentian woman, my passion about Caribbean women's issues has developed into research consultancies, an influential blog (@TashasParadise) and a network of contacts including my partner organisations: Wholeness and Wellness Counselling Services (WWCS), Conflict Women and Women's Institute for Alternative
Development (WINAD).