Dive shop social media insult stirs up viral outrage
(CNS): A thoughtless insult made on social media by the owners of a West Bay dive shop on Tuesday has stirred up a viral firestorm across the community, focusing on the growing divide and distrust between residents who are new (or ‘paper’) Caymanians or expat and the generational locals who live there. Indigo Divers recently installed a locked gate on their private dock adjacent to the public dock on the corner of North West Point in West Bay and indicated in a post that it was designed to keep out the “riff-raff’ and fishermen, which has outraged the community.
In less than 24 hours, district MPs, potential election candidates, on-air talk show hosts, Instagram and Facebook posters, meme creators, WhatsApp groups and even restaurants have all weighed in to name and shame the dive company and signal that the gate is one thing, but the insult is too much. T-shirts are also already on sale as many Caymanians choose to embrace the ‘riff-raff’ insult.
But the message is going well beyond the insensitive remark itself and has become illustrative of the feelings of local people and the worsening divide between them and expats, which is symbolic of the changing face of the country. Generational Caymanians see the best of Cayman slipping away as the culture and heritage are lost because of overdevelopment and the population grows rapidly through immigration.
Caymanians repeatedly see expats profiting from overdevelopment while they feel the loss of the once-tight social cohesion of a community not driven purely by profit margins.
Access to the shore and enjoying what the sea has to offer is tightly bound to local culture. However, over the last two decades, the pace and scale of development along the oceanfront have reduced that access to such an extent that it is now a real challenge for locals to get onto and enjoy the beach and locations where they once fished or where kids played on docks.
While the gate has been erected on private property to protect the dock from misuse and appears to be lawful, the insult that accompanied the post by the company owners, Katie and Chris Alper, who seemed to be proud of their move to keep people that they see as undesirable out, has cut deep in the community.
The anger has been further fuelled by their doubling down on the insult. They are now including the term “riff-raff” in their dive shop name and other social media profiles after pulling down their FaceBook page and disabling the TripAdvisor account because of the barrage of angry comments.
Pictures previously posted by the couple on social media were also circulating yesterday, showing what appears to be Chris Alper in a tasteless blackface fancy dress costume, which has added further fuel to the fire.
However, the Alpers have claimed that they did not mean to insult local people and erected the gate because of people littering, anti-social behaviour, drunkenness and fishermen gutting their catch on the dock and and not cleaning up after themselves.
Speaking to Radio Cayman News on Wednesday morning, Chis Alper, who has Caymanian status, said the insult was not aimed at Caymanians as a whole but at individuals who have been misusing his property.
“This is my front door,” he said, adding he did not want people coming to dive seeing leftover beer cans and fish guts all over the front of his business. He apologised to the community and insisted it was about people, regardless of who they were or where they were from, engaging in anti-social behaviour. “I’m not insulting Cayman. I love Cayman,” he told the radio station.
Andre Ebanks MP (WBS), in whose constituency the dive shop is located, paid a visit Tuesday and learned that the gate was erected on private property. There had been some confusion that the gate had been erected on the adjacent public West Bay dock. Ebanks spoke to the Alpers, who said they had finally had enough of the disruptive behaviour.
Ebanks said that the Alpers, as property owners, had a right to protect it. However, the MP noted the poor choice of words on the social media posts. In a social media post of his own he said he had asked the owner to apologise for the generalising and offensive language used.
“It’s unbecoming of us as a community,” Ebanks said, adding that he had asked the Alpers to reconsider whether the fence was actually needed and if it could be removed. “It is not reflective of who we are as a community. First things first, please apologise,” the MP posted.
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Category: Local News
Trespassing is illegal. Why has no one been arrested yet?
This expat stands with the Caymanians who are rightfully insulted. Blackface in 2025 is resson enough to be canceled.
Like many wealthy expats here, they only love Cayman for the profits, tax free life, lax law enforcement and lovely weather.
Count me in with the “riff raff”.
There is an element of fake outrage here. Many people have pointed out that Caymanians are a minority. So how do you know they meant Caymanians by the term? Surely, they meant the people littering and damaging the dock wherever they may come from.
But for some social commentators and ‘activists’ with chat shows and a social media presence they need controversy, they need the clicks (that’s how they get paid after all) and they need division. Blame the others – locals or immigrants. Trump, Farage and his cronies would smile if they bothered to read all this.
Wouldn’t call that “Blackface” more like Brown, Blue, Red, yellow & Whiteface.
Never would I think someone would come to the Caribbean and dress in a blackface. an example needs to be set for others thinking they can get away with this sort of behavior.
As my mama always said, riffraff is as riffraff does.
YES, they had a right to protect their property, it is the way how they did it. Put up your fence and give your unfortunate reason and carry on. The condescending way that it was done is what the people have a problem with.
It’s a crying shame that people are so disrespectful and entitled that the gate needed to be installed. That’s the real issue here.
His term Riff Raff was completely taken out of context and ran with the public. To clarify, I am 100 percent Caymanian. The owners, however made 2 large mistakes.
1. They should have erected their gate/fence and said nothing. It is private property and well within the law.
2. Rather than explaining the reasoning of the use of the term “riff raff” obviously referring to troublemakers leaving trash, fish guts etc behind, not Caymanians specifically, they decided to make fun of the situation.
While both of these mistakes understandably and rightly cause a stir in the local community, it’s getting a bit out of hand, especially they painting them as racists because of a Halloween costume. If only Caymanians rallied together this hard when it comes to important political matters, we would be able to make a much bigger difference in this country and for our future.
I believe that the dive shop actually built that dock, so kids did not play on it years ago or fish from it. Not positive but it’s only been about 10 years or so that the dock has been there. I give them 100 percent support for protecting their own property. Fish from the Public dock next door, if you don’t fall through it!
Insinuating that native Americans are black is both racist and highly offensive.
They weren’t lying.
What a storm in a teacup, another small event that has been exaggerated out of proportion.
Get real Cayman and focus on the real issues of the day, like getting government to rescind import duties on basic food items.
Agree 100% with the dive shop owner.
It’s obvious when using the term “riff raff” to describe those who mistreat his private property he was referring to those people who were mistreating his private property not the generational Caymanians from West Bay to East End who have nothing to do with the issue.
There is no doubt shore fisherman leave their mess behind coast to coast. Walk any waters edge and you will find line, hooks, bait bags, food wrappers, beer bottles left behind for someone else to clean up.
Do better and get treated better.
Don’t make every little thing about us v them. It’s not.
I can’t help but wonder if the business owners attempted any community outreach first? To explain their concerns and work together to come up with a solution. The caption on the post shows poor judgement at best. Do better Chris and Kate Alper.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d5NQ0D79Ul8&pp=ygURUmFzeWEgbWFuIGxpdmUgdXA%3D
That’s not blackface.