Teaching Garveyism could crush reckless stud stereotype

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I agree with the letter of Dave Carruthers, titled ''Parentism', not Garveyism', published Thursday, February 9, 2012, regarding the need for greater emphasis on parenting and the nuclear family as basic building blocks of society. However, I do not agree that Garveyism is not relevant to his issue.

By far the most common family unit in Jamaica is the single-mother model, with the father merely visiting from time to time or completely absent. As a result of having had the slave owner's iron hand encouraging them to 'breed' during slavery, so as to enrich the slave owner, the modern Jamaican man overemphasises his sexuality and produces as many children as possible with several women, without regard to whether they are able or willing to support them.

Dancehall music glorifies the man whose sexual appetites are such that he needs several women to satisfy him. In a context like this, a man's devotion to family responsibility just does not figure in the equation.

This image of the Jamaican African male as one who just cannot keep it in his pants, who is permanently sexually ready and able to perform, is seen by a large cross section of our men as flattering and ego-boosting, rather than as a demeaning negative stereotype of the black man that it really is.

The size and state of the genitals on the statue at Emancipation Park are not seen as an embarrassing, undignified presentation of the black man, but as something to be celebrated.

Marcus Garvey's emphasis on the dignity of black people is completely antithetical to the idea of the black man who measures his worth by the number of women he services and the number of children he produces.

I believe that teaching Garveyism in schools can begin to encourage our men to leave the slave stud role in the past where it belongs, in favour of a modern, realistic and responsible attitude to women and family life.

A READER