President Christine Kangaloo has called on Trinidad and Tobago to free itself from “all forms of racism, exclusion and hatred,” saying true emancipation extends beyond physical freedom to include intellectual liberation.

In her African Emancipation Day message, the President said that “mental emancipation requires us to free ourselves from all forms of racism” and reject the notion that race determines a person’s worth, loyalty or place in society.

President Kangaloo warned that racial slurs and prejudice inflict real harm, but stressed that responding to prejudice with counter-prejudice only deepens divisions.