Kristen Gyles | Make the nine days count

In February 2017, I had an epiphany. There had been a long spate of abductions and killings of women and girls. The murders were so frequent and so gruesome that people started to wonder whether a demon had been let loose. Girls were being cautioned to avoid taking taxis, since taxi drivers were thought to be the culprits behind many of the abductions, and where taxis couldn’t be avoided, women were encouraged to take pictures of the licence plates of the vehicles they were getting into. Many women and girls were living in abject fear of the barbaric and bloodthirsty crime monster.

In the midst of all the fear, there was an organised call from civil society leaders, for all Jamaicans to wear black on February 6, 2017 in solidarity with the fight against gender-based violence. Somehow, the focus immediately shifted from the barbarism that was causing the spate of killings to a debate surrounding why the country needed to wear black.

Many of Columbus’ descendants made the groundbreaking discovery that “wearing black won’t solve crime”. Others made it clear that it was the government who was responsible for the crime-ridden state of the country, and as a result they would not be protesting what they did not cause. What became obvious in my moment of enlightenment was that as long as there was a reason not to support a call to unity, some Jamaicans would find it. We are our own enemies sometimes.

SHOWED SUPPORT

Gladly, many showed their support and notwithstanding the distractions, the fairly unified stance gave fuel to the flame which helped to sustain the nationwide discussion. The spate of killings eventually ended, but with a message having been sent to the perpetrators that the Jamaican society had taken a side against them.

Following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a police officer who kneeled on his neck, there were protests all over the world and despite the few who made it their point of duty to naysay, a global discussion was sparked not only surrounding police brutality and how it can be prevented but also around racial prejudice. That incident and the protests it sparked raised global awareness on an unprecedented level, created a platform for the ventilation of the racial issues faced by black Americans and paved the way for legislative changes, including the banning of the police practice of using chokeholds or neck restraints and the signing of an executive order to create a federal database of fired police officers and officers with multiple instances of misconduct. Since the protests, the US has also seen the introduction of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 which was intended to limit the use of excessive force by police officers.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what unity does. Unity brings change. It is a little disheartening to know that so often when we should be uniting around a cause, negativity and pessimism manage to knock us off our mission. There’s always a negative Nancy or doubting Thomas somewhere in the midst either forecasting that the goal is too lofty and will never be achieved or nitpicking at some tangential issue.

Just as in 2017, Jamaicans were encouraged to wear black and turn on their headlights during an announced National Day of Mourning last week to remember the nation’s children who have fallen a prey to violence. And just as in 2017, the same underwhelming, tired arguments made the rounds yet again.

NINE DAY WONDER

Here in Jamaica, everything is pejoratively dubbed a ‘nine-day wonder’. The truth is, there is nothing profound or strange about public discourse on a particular subject dying down with the passage of time. Obviously, an emotionally stirring report of any injustice will cause an immediate uproar which will not last forever. But rather than critiquing the length of time it takes people to get back to regular programming each and every time there is injustice, why not focus on why it is that our nine days of complaining and bellyaching seem to so often yield no fruit? Could it be that we spend our valuable nine days bickering with each other over the chosen means of protest? Could it be that the few protests that are organised are poorly supported?

A big part of the reason that nine days comes and goes with no change sometimes is because our strength lies in our unity and it seems we have very little.

Take, for example, the recent study conducted by the Brattle Group, which quantified the reparations due to Jamaica arising from the Transatlantic Chattel Slavery as being many trillions of dollars. Jamaicans have got more excited over the opening of a new doughnut shop. Over the years, several conversations have been had regarding the need for reparations but if the conversations are largely being held by a minority of people with little collective interest having been garnered, who will pay Jamaica a cent?

We have to start linking our collective advocacy to the progress we make as a country. Nothing tried, nothing gained. There is power in unity, in advocacy, and in standing together. If we all do the ‘little’ that lies within our power, we can actually make the nine days count.

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Send feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com.