Jamaica is a culture that institutionalizes anti-black hatred. Why are Jamaicans so filled with hatred towards black people?


It is no secret that most Jamaicans have a reputation for being extremely rude and ignorant. I have also found that the vast majority of Jamaicans are very racist and intolerant towards other black people, almost in the same way that the Ku Klux Klan or white supremacist neo-Nazis are racially intolerant towards blacks. As a matter of fact, I once knew a Jamaican who always carried a copy of Mein Kampf around in public and was always speaking about how great his hatred was for black people. Now, before anybody accuses me of being biased, I will have to admit that I have been to Jamaica and have lived there (in both country and town) for an extensive period of time. I have seen with my own eyes how Jamaicans treat black and non-black visitors. If the visitor happens to be white or non-black, Jamaicans will go out of there way to accomodate that person any way they can. If the visitor is black, whether he is from the USA, England, Gambia, or any other nation, they will automatically treat him like a piece of garbage or a second-class citizen. To sum up my initial impressionistic observations of Jamaican society: if you happen to be black in Jamaica, you should expect to be abused and mistreated. If you are white and in Jamaica, expect to be treated like a king (atleast in comparison to how black people are treated). I have also noticed that when abroad, most Jamaicans will gang up on other black people and even many people of East Indian descent as well. Many Jamaicans, when they attain positions of power ( like becoming a judge, police officer) in countries like the USA or England, will go out of their way to racially discriminate against black people.

To conclude, I think that Jamaicans often pick on black people, and sometimes East Indians as well, because they know they can get away with it. A Jamaican would never pick on a white person, because they know there would be serious repercussions for doing so. Even if the white person was a freak or an eccentric of some kind, no Jamaican would ever go out of his way to hurt that person, because 50 white people would jump out of nowhere and that Jamaican would get f*cked up. I believe that Jamaicans avoid targeting white people for bullying because white people have more advantages than blacks and are often deeply embedded in personal social networks that makes it difficult for other people to victimize them and get away with it. Most dark-skinned people, on the other hand, do not have the same kinds of advantages as whites and are not as heavily supported by their peers as whites are. Thus, when a Jamaican sees someone with a dark skin, they know that if they go out of their way to victimize this person, there is an 80 - 90% chance that they will get away with it. Jamaicans are, almost by definition, social predators who look tough by preying on the weak and vulnerable.


It should be obvious that Jamaican culture institutionalizes racial hatred against people of African descent, and by extension, against all dark-skinned peoples the world over, especially against people of East Indian heritage. One aspect of the anti-black hatred that permeates much of the typical Jamaican mentality is that many amongst them still feel that having a lighter skin colour and assimilating European cultural values is the only way to effectively achieve social mobility within Jamaican society. In fact, the people who occupy the highest echelons of Jamaican society happen to be very light-skinned mulattoes and descendents of the previous colonial British rulers. Should it come as any surprise that, after the achievement of Jamaican independence in 1962, many of the first prime ministers and politicians were white men or mulattoes such as Norman Manley, Alexander Bustamante, Michael Manley or Edward Seaga? Wasn’t the first truly black prime minister elected in 1982, 20 years after the achievement of Jamaican independence from Great Britain? Contrast this with the fact that many African nations, when they achieved independence in the 1950s and 1960s, always selected an indigenous leadership to take over the reins of power after the expulsion of the Western European colonial powers. In post-independence Africa, a white man or a light-skinned black was never allowed to regain power in a post-colonial administration that was truly meant for the autochthonous peoples.

However, this is not the case in Jamaica. It is no secret that most Jamaicans actually believe that people of Western European origin are both physically and intellectually superior to blacks; it is almost as if Jamaicans are masochists who subconsciously enjoy being thoroughly degraded and psychologically brutalized by the hands of white oppression. Although a predominantly “black” (in terms of consciousness, Jamaicans are more white than black) country, Jamaicans have always preferred being ruled by white men and Western European culture. Even today, much of contemporary Jamaican political culture is dominated by white faces and mulattoes. Even though the Jamaican populace is largely “black”, it would seem that many are so ashamed of being black that they are much more comfortable being represented by people of European origin on both a national and international level. Why else would a predominantly “black” society like Jamaica repeatedly and democratically elect governments headed by and largely composed of whites and light-skinned mulattoes? Furthermore, on a socio-economic level, the upper classes are represented overwhelmingly by whites who are either of British origin or of distant African ancestry. Sadly, in contemporary Jamaican society, both acting and looking white are still the standards by which individual success is both gauged and measured, where white is still equated with affluence, and black is still equated with abject poverty.

Why is it that preferential treatment is shown exclusively to whites and lighter skinned blacks in Jamaica? It should come as no surprise that most Jamaicans are ashamed of being black and wish to extinguish all traces of blackness from their consciousness. Much of the time, Jamaicans do this by contracting marriages amongst mulattoes and European whites in a vain attempt to deliberately whiten themselves by whitening their socio-economic status and the skin colour of whatever future descendents they may have. From a psychoanalytic point of view, many Jamaicans, through an act of passive-aggressive displacement, take their violent hatred of black history and culture out on other defenceless and vulnerable blacks by, for example, brutalizing and violating the human rights of Haitian and Dominican asylum seekers (by unjustly forcing them into what appear to be internment centres that resemble “concentration camps”), as well as practicing racial discrimination against other visitors of African descent.

To conclude, I sincerely believe that Jamaica is frequently singled out as a lone Island of Hatred, amidst a sea of love and tolerance, because not all of Caribbean culture can be characterized as possessing the same kind of institutionalized anti-black hatred that is so typical of Jamaican society. In the Francophone West Indies, there was an ideological movement known as Negritude that had far reaching socio-political ramifications for black people on a global level, being the inspiration behind the achievement of independence in many West African nations. Many French West Indian authors, such as Aime Cesaire and Frantz Fanon are still internationally read and treasured for their wisdom by blacks in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. However, Jamaica is unusual in this regard; it has never produced a sustained ideological movement of black consciousness on its own soil, neither has it ever produced any great writers that have been able to probe the depths of the black experience throughout the Americas and Africa (with the lone exceptions of Rastafarianism, a fringe cult, and Marcus Garvey in the 1920s, whose movement was short lived and confined in both reach and influence to the United States). On the basis of the afore-mentioned evidence, I have been led to the conclusion that this is because of the enormous hatred that Jamaicans harbour towards black culture and African people.

Interesting viewpoint. Wonder if James Walker has ever even been there?

Well James.....enjoy the ride you're about to go on! And if anyone finds this thread too ridiculous let me know.

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Interesting, same exact topic here; Are Jamaicans Racist Towards Other Blacks? - Topix

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Hey!! Welcome James! Now **** off to some other forum with your bile.

Never mind my question, I actually read past the ugly picture just now.

Why don't you ask FM?? He's black and just got back from Jamaica. Pretty sure he wouldn't want to return so badly if they would have hated him.

I think this thread is small minded and doesn't have enough backing it up. You are ONE person James. Not nearly enough to make such a sweeping generalization.

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LMAO Eco. Nice find!

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By the way - there are some relevant points in his post. There are divisions in the UK between Caribbean and African blacks and that would be an interesting topic to discuss for us familiar members. But hes a random poster with an agenda so I have no patience for it.

LOL.

Hmmmm.

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Vision consists not of seeing what is or what was...(but) of what my be...could be..or will be, if we only take the steps today to make it happen. - Unknown.

I'm impressed with your level of restraint. You must be praying right now LOL.

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James' post is well written and thought provoking. I have no opinion on the subject, but will be interested to see what others have to say.

Hi James.

How much anyone wanna bet James never posts in this thread again?

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Exactly. Sounds like a man with a chip on his shoulder - maybe through personal experience but maybe if he'd become a member first then introduced them in discussion I may not have presumed he was a racist twat.

Exactly.

Anyways this thread will die its due death when its ready.

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Lawd it sooooo long....makes me think Alex posted it!!!

Oh well - imma try reading it objectively before I comment further...

Actually, there is a considerable amount of evidence pointing to institutionalized racial discrimination against black people in Jamaica. Just read this article in the Jamaica Gleaner (and incidentally written by a Jamaican) about how Jamaicans mistreat people of African descent:


We Jamaicans have a special affinity for Africa and things African, and rightly so; for the vast majority of us have deep African roots. But it is also true that we hate ourselves and our African-ness, our black-ness, such that we seek to bleach it out and straighten it out, and 'plastic surgery' it out. More on that anon.

One of the ways we show our hatred for Africa and things African is how we treat native Africans on our soil. Even in the Church! I want to share with youthe case of an African woman, Jainaba Drammeh from the Gambia, brought to my attention by someone commenting on last week's column.

Ms. Drammeh, who was doing a Masters in Cuba, came to Jamaica in November 2006 to visit a Jamaican friend from Clarendon she had met in Cuba; so we have to define her as a tourist. On entry into Jamaica at the Norman Manley International Airport, Ms. Drammeh was given permission to stay in Jamaica until November 29, 2006.

On November 19, 2006 she left Jamaica to return to Cuba through Nassau, Bahamas. For some reason the immigration authorities in Nassau refused her entry and returned her on November 20 to Jamaica. Upon arrival in Jamaica, she was refused entry, despite the previous permission to remain in Jamaica until November 29, 2006. She was held against her will at the airport for three days and then taken to the Horizon Remand Centre where she was locked up for five months. Ms. Drammeh was never informed of the reason for her incarceration, never taken before any court, never provided with the services of counsel, never allowed to contact her university in Cuba or her family in the Gambia. She was not assisted in any way to contact her Clarendon friend to tell her of her plight, even though the immigration authorities knew she had recently stayed there. She was unlawfully held during a period when she had permission to stay in Jamaica, and unlawfully incarcerated thereafter without recourse to any court or any legal advice.

Ms. Drammeh tried to smuggle a note with her friend's phone number out of Horizon, for someone to call her, but it was always found. It was only on May 1, 2007 that one of the immigration officers called her Clarendon friend inquiring if she could provide U.S. dollars for Ms. Drammeh on her journey home to the Gambia. The Clarendon lady was shocked that her friend and guest had been returned to Jamaica and was being held by the authorities for so long without her knowledge; on May 4, 2007 Ms. Drammeh was released into the custody of her Clarendon friend.

Repatriation time

Ms. Drammeh was only repatriated to her homeland this week. She came as a tourist, to visit her Jamaican friend, and always had the means to leave if given the opportunity. Would we treat a white tourist this way? As a result of her incarceration in Jamaica, Ms. Drammeh has lost the chance to continue her studies in Cuba.

Her family is not without influence in the Gambia, and no doubt she will tell everyone how we treat African tourists in this country. I can't blame her.

I am advised that during her time in the Horizon Remand Centre, a white European woman was brought in, but only stayed for a few hours.

We cannot as a country with international obligations, treat people - black or white - in this callous, immoral and illegal manner. Each person in these circumstances must be informed of the reason for his or her detention, advised of their entitlement to legal advice and released or repatriated within a reasonable time. These are the basic rights that everyone is entitled to.

The immigration officers responsible for mistreating this tourist should be held accountable, otherwise it will happen again.
Yes, we have this love/hate relationship with ourselves, and we take it out on the native Africans we can get our hands on. And on Haitians too, if the truth be told; there are lots of black Haitian women at the Horizon Remand Centre right now! In this year when we celebrate the bicentenary of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, some of us Jamaicans don't like people who are too black. And we don't care!

Here is a link to the article: Jamaica Gleaner News - Lovers of Africa? - Wednesday | May 23, 2007