Jacqueline Samuels-Brown | Ethnicity and social class - Plucking opportunities from the crisis

The furore fired by the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Jamaica has once again placed front and centre not only how our courts function as one of the gatekeepers of fairness and equality, but has also raised the larger question of social norms outside of the courtroom and the schoolroom.

It is undeniable that in Jamaica there is a parallel between social stratification and ethnicity. It has historically been that the more European the appearance, the greater and more culturally acceptable. So the banks and our beloved Air Jamaica would in the past openly advertise for and recruit employees who were ‘light’ or ‘fair skin’ with ‘attractive’ hair. Individuals with Afrocentric facial features were, and still are, classified as ugly or perhaps ‘not so pretty’.

I have not yet been privileged to see the affidavit filed in court on behalf of the young girl in the well-publicised court case but I have read the ones filed on behalf of the school. The school gives as the reason for its disapproval of locks what it states is the school’s experience of poor hygiene accompanying the locked hairstyle, resulting in infestation.

I am curious to know how prevalent the instances of liced-locks were at the Kensington Primary School. I ask myself whether educators committed to building self-esteem in our children ever met with the parents of the alleged infested child or children and counselled them as to proper hygiene, assisting them with the means to do so. There is nothing in the affidavits that I have read that provide answers to these questions. I am led to ask: is this another case of the good being made to suffer for the bad? Or is it that birds of a feather should be locked out together with broad-brushed condemnation as opposed to individual nurturing? I am also unaware as to whether these questions were asked by way of the mechanism for disclosure which the law allows.

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

This whole episode took me back to my childhood at primary school where dark-skinned Indo-Jamaicans were often looked down on. One of the prejudicial suggestions by classmates was that they had lice in their hair.

I am not aware that anyone was denied the right to an education on this basis. In any event, I had Indian school friends and playmates and I never observed any lice in their hairs, neither was any such infestation transferred to me. I guess it would be said that perhaps that was because my hair was short and knotty.

Later in life I met a friend who grew up in a community in lower St Andrew where there lived a large conclave of Indo-Jamaicans. This friend also confirmed the prejudice meted out to the dark-skinned children of Indian ethnicity by their schoolmates. They were definitely treated as at the bottom of the barrel, save that the ‘half Indian’ girls whose facial features mirrored that of Europeans were regarded as the pretty ones and were sought after by the boys even when not blessed with light complexions.

I also remember a family meeting convened by my father in which he admonished us to treat all with respect, and I remember being specifically told not to ever refer to our Indian schoolmates and neighbour as ‘Coolies’. I subsequently learnt that in other Caribbean territories, even within the Indo ethnic communities, a similar class distinction is made between persons of Indian roots who are educated and/or financially well off. They are referred to as Indians, while those of lower social status are referred to as Coolies.

ROOTS OF THE PREJUDICES

I recount these experiences not to detract from the discussion of the right to wear hairstyles which celebrate our African heritage. On the contrary, I have chosen to do so in order to emphasise the link between social stratification and ethnicity and to explore the roots of the prejudices against Afrocentricity and locks.

Indeed, at my same primary school, girls of lighter complexion but who were from poorer communities were referred to in a hostile and derogatory manner as ‘redibos’. I did not then know what this meant. It was later that I learnt that there is in Nigeria an ethnic group of Igbos who have a lighter copper tone to their skins. I then came to realise that what was being emphasised by the intended derogatory word ‘redibo’ was that you may be of lighter skin but you are not of the brown upper class so ‘hold your position’.

It is plain to me that the deep-seated social prejudices that many of us have inherited and embraced are anchored on the realities and perceptions of class handed down by our colonial masters who thrived on the slavery and indentured labour. The unfortunate truth is that we have in many respects internalised these very self-destructive ideas.

In our country the relatedness of class, colour and ethnicity are deeply intertwined and often unconsciously embedded in our psyches, and regrettably not easily displaced by education.

An example of this came from a beloved teacher of mine. She was a magnanimous Christian woman with no airs. Two boys were to the back of my class joking around. One light-skinned of mixed ethnicity with straight hair that flopped down over his forehead, the other a stocky boy with a deep brown complexion who would be referred to as black. They were equally robust in their disruption of the class. My beloved teacher, however, targeted the one with the marked Afro ethnicity, telling him to shut up “as we don’t tolerate that behaviour here”. I remember being shocked and disappointed by this discriminatory approach.

FURTHER TO GO

For years the standard of beauty has been floppy straight hair or hair with loose curls. Interestingly, persons with locks have shared with me compliments received by them to the effect of how attractive they now are with long hair, and others, without realising what they are revealing, have told me how nice it feels to be able to shake their heads and flick their hair. The fact that the last two shared experiences are from females is not surprising, as we all know that traditionally beauty is a more valued attribute in females than in males.

Jamaican men like to compliment women they pass on the streets. In one such instance, I rejected the intended compliment of one who greeted me felicitously as his browning. I smiled back and told him I was a black woman, not a browning. This provoked one of the most virulent cursing I have ever received. He was understandably hurt by my rejection of his well-intended supreme compliment.

In today’s Jamaica, but for the skin-bleaching trend, we are generally more subtle in expressing these preferences and prejudices. Currently, even among our judiciary, there are now female judges who sport unprocessed locked hairstyles. Recently, a female who is a professed Muslim and who wears a traditional Muslim head covering was appointed as one of our judges. This is unlikely to have been tolerated in our not-so- glorious past.

We have come a long way. But there is much further to go. As we ease into our 60th anniversary of declared emancipation, we must use this controversial case as a platform on which to build cohesiveness based on ethnic and national pride. We must pluck opportunities from the crisis. Let us live the dream. Out of many one beautiful people.

- Jacqueline Samuels-Brown is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com