Lascelve Graham | Skin pigmentation versus the lack thereof

I RECEIVED a number of comments to my last article, some printed in The Gleaner and others by way of other avenues. As a footballer, one of the skills required is anticipation. Hence, I expected feedback but, I was pleasantly surprised that in general, it was supportive, and that the pushback wasn’t stronger, more severe, harsher. Maybe, they figure that as the saying goes, silence is gold. It could be that the strategy is to hold back the heavy artillery, and see if they can wait out this voice crying in the wilderness, as I have been called in other circumstances.

However, I would like to deal with the ideas thrown up by the comments. The fact that a number of people were supportive, and willing to expend the energy and effort needed to express it, may suggest that all is not lost, it is not as hopeless as it may seem, and it may be possible, in a reasonable time, to develop a critical mass, able to drive fundamental change.

I had written, “ The commenter also accepts the concept of ‘races’, biologically, physiologically unmixable, distinguishable groups of people, although this has no basis in science. It’s a lie that races exist!”

Comment: “It’s a lie u trying to casually state as a fact.”

Isn’t this the crux of the matter?

White supremacists have spent decades, centuries trying to show that there’s a scientific basis for races. They have failed miserably and the contrary has been proven. The need to prove the scientific support for races went so far that an Englishman faked an archaeological find, the Piltdown Man, that purportedly supported the idea that Europeans originated in England. This hoax, fraud had the scientific community in a tizzy, frenzy for more than 40 years! This was in a bid to show some fundamental difference between Europeans and others, since the science clearly demonstrated the same source for homo sapiens, Africa, and migration out of Africa to all corners of the earth. Science also shows that the mental, intellectual capacity of all peoples are equal, the same, similar.

DOMINATED

As outlined by Dr Cheikh Anta Diop, the world-renowned Senegalese scholar, nuclear physicist, anthropologist, Egyptologist and director of the radiocarbon laboratory at the University of Dakar, and confirmed by others, in ancient times, dark skin people dominated, were the imperialists, had intricate bureaucracies to run their cities, with kinky-haired black Pharaohs ruling Egypt from the beginning to the end of the early Egyptian civilisation. The first Pharaoh unified the Nile valley from upper to lower Egypt 3,300 years before Christ. Two thousand three hundred years before the birth of architecture in Greece, it was in Africa. There was also mathematics and medicine. Africa was the birthplace of monotheistic religion as well, as it was one of these Pharaohs who was the first to decree the worship of a monotheistic God! He was before Moses. The first prophet of the world was from this period, and was also African. Egypt played the same role for African civilisation as the Greco-Romans did for western civilisation.

Race is a social construct. It has been rubbished by science! However, this is of little or no import, no consequence to the racists or the heavily brainwashed among us.

Comment: “Most of the prejudice against black people, are coming from black Jamaicans.”

I had written, “The brainwashing has been thorough, and the self-hate it has generated is palpable! Consequently, many successful dark skin persons are only too happy to act as headmen used to in times of slavery, do everything they can to delineate, separate themselves from the dark skin group. They are as harsh, deprecating, apathetic and unforgiving of this group as any European is, in order to ingratiate themselves and curry favour with the lighter skin fraternity.” They are the front men, the puppets of the light skin agenda.

Comment: “Enough of the slavery argument which happened nearly two centuries ago.”

This is one of the main planks, the heart, the core, the central strategy of the colour-blind approach, pushed by white supremacists and their disciples. Make discussion of slavery, colour taboo in genteel company and among ambitious, successful dark skin persons eager to climb the social ladder “step up inna life”, and it’s game over, since, the probability is high that this is the group from which dark skin leadership will emerge ... thoroughly brainwashed!

KNOW IT BY HEART

Why shouldn’t dark skin people discuss their history, know it by heart, including slavery and what came before, up to the beginning of antiquity, especially in the attempt to understand their present? The Jews are not told to forget the holocaust. If one attempted this, one would be vigorously denounced and accused of antisemitism. Why then should dark skin people be prompted to forget slavery? Silence as a method of control has a long history. The easiest way to control people is to forbid them to speak. The really sad part is that some dark skin people have been so conditioned, brainwashed that they have become the enforcers of this silence.

Comment: “Skin colour is just an excuse by too many for their failures ... IT IS NOT THE DARKER SKIN that is keeping anyone down, it is the dark mentality.”

This is another saying taken straight out of the colour blindness manual. The masses of dark skin Jamaicans begin life with tremendous deficits over which they have little or no control. However, the colour blindness rhetoric would have us blame the victims for their circumstances … it’s a “mentality”, a “culture”.

Jamaica’s education system has failed the overwhelming majority of its students dismally. The public education system has fallen down in its mission to deliver quality education to the vast numbers of our young people. Is it the fault of the youth that so many leave secondary school barely able to read, write or manipulate numbers? The article explains, “Hence, in Jamaica, skin colour prejudice in politics manifests primarily as acts of omission, with government essentially dragging its feet in dealing with the horrible conditions in which masses of dark skin people find themselves. Consequently, e.g., there is no urgency, will to making the type of investment required in education, although there have been commissions, myriad in-depth studies and research which all say essentially the same thing and make similar recommendations.” When students live in squalor, are hungry, tired and have to be thinking about the next hustle, not to mention staying away from gunshots, living under horrible home conditions, etc., it may be a little difficult to focus on what the teacher is saying. Of course, one has to also take into account the quality of the teachers, among other things.

Comment: “There was never a class for lighter complexion students.”

You just weren’t in that class! There are private schools that the vast majority of dark skin students could never afford to attend. The resources of those schools offer a much better teaching-learning environment. Consequently, these students are much better prepared for high school and later life.

The comments show in several instances the thinking of colonised people. We need to be aware, conscious of this burden, if we are ever going to be able to shake that yoke from our shoulders. We must exorcise that way of thinking from our minds, love ourselves, treat ourselves gently and with compassion as we work steadily towards the realisation of our full potential. We must believe in ourselves, and stop putting ourselves down! We also need to understand the critical role that leadership plays in bringing about change of this magnitude in the masses of the people. The fundamental nature of education and socialisation in energising this change cannot be overstated.

Dr Lascelve ‘Muggy’ Graham former captain senior Jamaica football team. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com .