Columnists, editorial and letter writers, social commentators, radio talk show hosts and others have been focusing on the implications of such a shocking decision that has clearly embarrassed more than host country Barbados.

For the Barbadian people, who pride themselves in their democratic tradition, civility and tolerance of dissent, it was an awful experience that even the white wife of a black Bajan had to tearfully leave the conference while, as a palliative, her daughter of mixed race was told she could stay because she was recognised to be "black".

Although the excluded Whites and other non-Blacks numbered approximately 15 of an estimated 450 participants -- originally the organisers and sponsors had expected some 2,000 delegates and observers -- it was the violation of a sacred principle of non-discrimination that provoked and continue to sustain the outrage over the exclusionary motion.

It was a classic example of when the majority can be so wrong. Or when your guests insult you in your own home, in this case the foreign delegates being so insensitive to the dilemma in which they would place their hosts.

There have also been criticisms of "cowardice" and "ambiguity" against those delegates who abstained from the vote, a position that some claim to have been most unhelpful.

Chairperson of the conference central committee, Dr. Jewel Crawford, a medical doctor from Atlanta, Georgia in the USA, offered an explanation to angry delegates from the French territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique that only aggravated the problem.

They were told that it was a "democratic vote by the majority" at the first working plenary that approved the exclusionary motion.

But this was to be viewed as a further affront, an "absurdity" for the white Barbadian clergyman, Rev. Gerry Seale.

Seale was a member of a government-appointed Committee for National Reconciliation that was established amid a tense debate over alleged "racism" involving White and Black Barbadians.

He was to remind apologists for the vote, among them representatives of the local Commission for Pan African Affairs -- which is funded by the Government and was one of the organizers -- that it was a "majority, democratic vote" in the UK Houses of Parliament that had kept black people "enslaved" in Barbados (and other Caribbean lands).

The Cubans, whose heroic contributions in the liberation struggle in Africa are well-known, including the weakening of apartheid in South Africa, threatened to join other Caribbean delegations and all those planning to leave the conference -- unless the offensive motion was rescinded. They were left to carry out that threat.

Barbados's Minister of Home Affairs and Attorney General, Mia Mottley, who had delivered the feature address at the ceremonial opening of the conference at the Sherbourne Conference Centre the day before the decision to ban Whites and other non-Blacks, had earlier denounced the motion as "racist" and called for it to be rescinded.

No such luck.
Much to the deep disappointment of the Barbados Government and delegations like those from Cuba (comprised of white and black Cubans), Guadeloupe and Martinique, as well as some delegates from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Colombia, the "majority" vote and "minority" delegations walked out in defence of a vital, internationally recognised principle.

The Cubans, in a statement prior to departure, made clear that Cuba "will never support any action aimed at segregating a group of people...Cuba believes that the motion was intolerant and contrary to the purpose of the conference".

For the Barbadian historian and intellectual, Professor Hilary Beckles, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Principal of the UWI Cave Hill Campus, it was a moment for stern, unequivocal rebuke.

He did this by speedily withdrawing from presentation of a paper and denounced the motion as a "sad day in the history of Barbados".

He was to be subsequently commended by the UWI Vice-Chancellor Professor Rex Nettleford, who stressed that the region's premier educational institution could in no way be tarnished with "racism".

The conference was organised and sponsored as a collective effort involving Pan Africanists and Black militants and their groupings in the United States of America, Britain, Africa and Barbados as a direct follow-up to last year's United Nations-sponsored "World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance" in Durban, South Africa.

But it turned out to be counter-productive by the motion's implicit reversal of the international commitment against all forms of racism, discrimination and intolerance.

It left the Barbados Government -- a sponsor but not a participant -- to cry foul as it faced and continues to experience the burden of negative publicity at home and abroad.

The offensive motion was initiated by delegates from Britain who comprised the single largest delegation, some 60, and well supported by delegates from the USA. It was not made clear how many abstained.

The Barbados version of the Pan Africanist Movement -- a laudable idea spawned a century ago by visionaries like Trinidad and Tobago-born Henry Sylvester Williams, has come in for its strong share of criticisms because of its failure to distance itself from the offending exclusionary motion.

There have since been calls, including one editorial in last week's "Daily Nation", for Prime Minister Owen Arthur, to break his own silence on the racism experienced at the anti-racism conference and, relatedly, to also address his government's future policy toward the state-funded local Commission on Pan African Affairs.

Opposition Leader David Thompson, once a colleague of the Director of the Commission for Pan African Affairs, David Comissiong, said there was basically nothing wrong for any distinct ethnic group to organise a conference or engage in any activity to address matters pertaining to themselves.

But, he said, the "crown of thorns" bestowed on Barbados had resulted from the unpardonable failure by the organisers to state up front that the conference was restricted to Africans and their descendants.

Now, Thompson is asking the government to speak forthrightly on the role of the Commission for Pan African Affairs in that highly embarrassing motion to expel participants based on race.

Thompson stressed that the Commission had gobbled up some BDS$5M of state funds over the past five years and has now "tarnished its own standing by bungling a very significant event that has served to project our country in a very bad light internationally".

Others, such as the former Director of the National Cultural Foundation, Elombe Mottley, a strong advocate of close African-Caribbean relations at all levels, have called for Director Comissiong and his executive colleagues to make way for a revamped Commission for Pan African Affairs.

But Comissiong, undaunted, is even now pressing ahead to mobilise support for an end-of-conference decision to create a "Global African Congress" (GAC) for which he wrote the "pledge of allegiance".

The intention is for the GAC to interact internationally in efforts to champion the cause of Africans and their descendants, including the sensitive, controversial issue of reparation for slavery.