"MY SKIN ,NOT A SIN?"

The current climate is one of hurt because yet again another black life is lost ,many individuals wont really pay attention to this loss because ,we tend to not notice the seriousness of a situation because it has not yet knocked at our door. Some of us stay silent and choose to turn our eyes from the fact that we live in a world where our "skin" is hated , we often forget that as a people the color of our skin seems to matter more than our humanity and determines how we are treated and whether we get respect. In a world that upholds values meant to silence us and rob us of our rights how do we continue to see light? The answer is ,it starts first with taking off the blindfolds that obstruct our visions.

I was taught history in school a similar sentiment I am sure is shared by many of my peers , most of it the version told by the victors but none the less the horror that was slavery and the unfairness that seem to have followed people of color for centuries was evident but sadly for a long time to me it was just a story of the past .

Growing up in the Caribbean I did not experience racism directly, however I have experienced classism and colorism both of which are issues that are deeply rooted in racism. According to the dictionary ; classism is the prejudice or favor against or for an individual of a particular social class while colorism is the prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a darker skin tone often occurring among individuals of the same race group , sounds familiar?.

Having experienced racism both abroad and aspects of it back home I have seen a common thread and that is; we have given in to the need for separation created by the systems of our oppressors and one of the main culprits is slavery.We adhere to a system that leads us to want to categorize each other in our communities in the same way that the slave masters did back in the day .This separation is the tool that our oppressors use to justify the treatment of us when we cry for justice against the unfair treatment and lack of respect at their hand .We see this justification of bad treatment on social media everyday when individuals repeat the statement “ look how you treat each other” after a person of color speaks out about issues like police brutality among others . The worst thing is that some of us though educated will never realize what is happening because we have become comfortable in the so called status this implemented separation has given us in our community. We carry on not realizing it is a illusion being used to suppress and control the masses.Anywhere we go as a people in the world against the majority we are all seen as black no matter how “Light skinned versus dark skinned we are”,no matter how mixed we are wether it be a quarter of a next race or a half.

Why are all these tidbits important to know you may ask? and it is simple, if we as a people use our energy and our voices to band together if we should focus on self love and love for each other ,the fight against injustice will be faced with a united front and voice, a voice that will no longer be silenced. The truth is the opressors knew that in using tools that would create separation between us as a people we would become weak therefore the probability of silencing us would be greater , they knew the probability of keeping a entire race of people in mental slavery would be greater.

Many individuals won’t agree with me that racism is alive and running around Jolly in the Caribbean especially in the form of classism and colorism and usually one would say that is okay but today is not such a day it is absolutely not “okay” because failure of many to accept that we have a problem is one of the reasons why nothing changes and a vicious cycle continues . The only difference with our brand of racism here in countries like Jamaica is that unlike in the United States no one is actively getting killed because of it.

Recently it was brought to my attention a couple comments made by an old classmate of mine , I am sure that she may have felt she was justified in her statement yet this notion of “uptown“ people being better and others being jealous of them is yet another illusion , because no matter the area code you occupy in a country like Jamaica that does not determine your success as a person or your level of intelligence , it doesn’t even determine your character and it most definitely does not define how happy you are.

It now seems that many educated Caribbean youth even though they know our collective history still continues the practice of “if your white you are alright ,if your brown stick around , if your black step back “. It is a everyday reality where even the male counterparts in our communities go as far as to say the darker skin girls are angry or not pretty enough. I have had the unfortunate experience where a young man told me that he did not date girls who were darker than him (bare in mind we were the same complexion) but I got a pass because I had so called “nice long mixed people hair” or “good hair” as we have been taught to say and was “pretty” ,praise be to God I passed on that cup of ignorance . Then there are the females who would not date a darker skinned guy because brown guys with “Indian hair” would give them pretty babies. There was a point when a brilliant dark skinned young man said to me as a result of me not being interested in him that he was sure that my boyfriend was brown skinned , I was appalled because I had never looked at skin tone as a reason to be interested in someone I payed more attention to the persons character but not everyone does that and so to my friend that as the first argument as a counter seemed very plausible. Ladies and gentlemen as I sit here and write this ,I cringe because these reasonings I have gotten accustomed to hearing constantly makes it so evident that we have been socially engineered to hate the things about us that make us so beautiful as a people and we have been unjustly taught to disguise it as preference.

I do not want to be in danger of this beginning to sound like a rant but I will say we have to first admit that there is a serious problem we are experiencing in our communities and from there we can begin to make the necessary changes we need for the betterment of “all black people”. Unfortunately these stereo types we create and use to profile and style each other significantly contributes to the racism problem as a whole. The truth of the matter is the more divided we are by our colorist and classist values the more strength we give those who oppress us.

The more we embrace the need to categorize each other the more we stray from the motto of the country of Jamaica which should be a guideline for all that we are collectively “out of many one people” and that we are all equal and deserving of respect.