Orville Taylor | Death of an icon, and Will-full stumble of another

Dead, in a pool of blood, onlookers stunned and the musical world, especially those who love reggae music, are incredulous. Tabby Diamond, 67-year-old iconic lead singer of the Mighty Diamonds, killed by yet unknown assailants on McKinley Crescent in Kingston 11. Some 400 metres from where I was born and less than a kilometre from my primary school, St Patrick’s, it is a tiny hood. This hurts deeply because, through the darkness of our undeclared civil war of the 1970s and the gang violence of the 1980s to the present, this group has sung endless uplifting songs, which empowered countless youth.

Songs like Right Time were warnings of things to come, based on the social seeds we had sown. Citing Marcus Garvey, whom Rastafari regard as a prophet from Jah, they foretold that when the right time comes, many will be charged for treason and murder. And when the lawmen come, many will run ‘til dem tumble dung’. The song was a powerful statement against injustice and crime, with a call to the healing force of Rastafari, who, being ‘upfull’ and righteous, “will never run away”.

As young boys from the lower strata faced with the choice of becoming thugs and staying in school, Go Seek Your Rights hit home; “There comes a time in the life of every man, when you’ve got to face reality. Don’t you hurt your brother man too much, ‘cause, No man is an island, no man stands alone. Go seek your rights, I don’t say you must fight, But if it ever ever comes to the test, you must surely, surely, try try your best.”

His killing falls outside of the statistical norm. Typically, when a black man is killed in Jamaica, he is usually between the ages of 17 and 30, his killers are around the same age group and known to him. Suspicions of our homicide investigators are that this murder is connected to the activities of his son, who is a “known producer of violence”. Here in Jamaica, we have an expression, “can’t ketch Quashie; but you ketch him shut (shirt)”. Thus, in a macabre sense of reprisal, it is finding a proxy target for the retaliation or malice, when the intended subject cannot be reached.

SICK LOGIC

It is a sick kind of logic, especially when the relative is not even remotely supportive or connected with the enemy of the shooter. Unfortunately, this is not in itself an anomaly; because many innocents have died in stupid gang or turf wars, simply by dint of residing in the same community. A criminally violent mind by definition is deviant and, therefore, has a world view of its own, different from that of larger society.

Myriad sociological and anthropological studies have pointed to the antecedents of violence. True, there are some clear correlates, such as education, employment status, detachment and a history of being abused/tortured, especially by a mother. Indeed, this last one, as discovered by my ‘brolleague’ Herbert Gayle, is very frightening, because a high percentage of the coldest multiple murderers have had a history of being severely beaten by their mothers; not an absent father as the narrative goes.

However, whatever might be the statistical proclivity of the assailant, which lawyers might call mens rea, there is usually one single flashpoint that makes someone who has the deep history of slavery and colonialism in his DNA to act out. Often the single act is a ‘diss’. One who has never lived in the belly of the inner cities or interfaced with the residents has no idea what the impact of a small act of disrespect or physical abuse can do. Treating someone unjustly, bullying a less powerful person, short-changing another can ignite a train, which precipitates into multiple repercussions of murder.

A box to the face can easily be a death sentence for the perpetrator, months later. It is a bigger deal than a slanted insult or ridicule of one’s spouse. Restraint is not just a word the Family Court uses against abusive partners.

LARGER ISSUE

That is why, on Wednesday last, I connected the fresh prints on the face of the little rock to this larger issue of black-on-black violence. The biggest cause of non-natural death among black men globally is murder by other black men. In the most homicidal Anglophone country in the world, with a rate of around 45 per 100,000, those of us in influential positions must not abuse it by pandering to some quaint notion of macho or chivalry. Across the United States, cities like Baltimore, DC and Detroit, and communities in Miami like Overtown, and parts of Philadelphia, where Will Smith is from, have homicide rates similar to or worse than Kingston or Jamaica on the whole. In many ways, American blacks are third world within the first world.

In defending his concept of honour, he was literally caught between Rock and a soft place. On my exam paper, Smith gets F.

Smith, given his global stature, failed WEB Dubois who saw the role of privileged black men as us, being “…developing the Best of this race that they may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the Worst”.

Tabby’s death is really painful but my bigger fear is that Smith, being Hancock, should have kept his hand in his pockets instead of turning the screws on his career and that of millions of would-be killers, who think he was right.

Dr Orville Taylor is head of the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.