It should only be news to white-washed Jamaicans. To answer your question: Yes, by continuing to racially discriminate against black culture and people of African descent. By denying their African identity and promoting black-on-black racism, Jamaicans declare war on Africa every day of the year.

I guess that answers all of the questions for today. Anybody up for a discussion about black-on-black racism in Jamaica?

Not really. But I'm up for a conversation on sweeping generalizations.

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No kidding!!!


Or maybe we need to discuss the chip some...not all..but some Africans like this charming fellow..have on their shoulder against Jamaicans??

I hear africans diss each other all the time here in calgary...not like they all get along either. I once heard a group of Africans guys talking about how they'd like to kill off all the Africans in another country!! So maybe he needs to pick apart the racial problems in his own country before he starts on Jamaica!!

Jamaica has a rich history...what's wrong with them being proud of being Jamaican??


Everyone in the world has decended from some other country somewhere along the time line. Think of all the countries that have popped up since the bible days even!! It's cool to see where we decended from....but if I stopped being proud of being Canadian and just focused on where I decended from I'd be singing about fifty national anthems!!

Most Jamaicans are filled with black self-hatred.

Why is there so much black self-hatred in Jamaica? As we all know, Jamaica is one of the few places in the world today where the practice of skin bleaching has reached epidemic proportions, especially amongst the poor of the so-called garrison towns. Many Jamaicans will bleach themselves under the mistaken belief that having a fairer, whiter skin will lead to better jobs, better housing, greater social mobility, as well as greater popularity amongst the opposite sex. Even in spite of the dangers that can arise from using skin lightening cremes, such as developing skin cancer, glaucoma, and diabetes, many still view the pursuit of having a whiter, lighter skin as well worth the risk.

Here is a video about a family of Jamaican skin bleachers. Check this out:

http://www.vybzmagazine.com/skin-bleaching-a-disturbing-problem-in-jamaica/

In the video, notice that the old Jamaican woman being interviewed by Michelle Bromley-McGhie has clearly suffered a large amount of skin damage to her face because of bleaching. However, she not only continues to apply the creme to her face and body, but encourages her daughter to bleach her own skin as well. Talk about sick!

Now lets place this video in some context. According to City University of New York scholar and researcher Christopher A.D. Charles, in a 2007 paper first published in The Journal of Black Studies and entitled “Skin Bleachers’ Representations of Skin Color in Jamaica “:

A content analysis was done of the reasons the participants give for bleaching their skin. The participants bleach their skin to remove facial blemishes, to make their faces “cool,” as a result of peer influence, to lighten their complexion, to appear beautiful and to attract a partner, to follow a popular fad, and to have the visual stimulus of the bleached skin because it makes them feel good. In Jamaican society, negative representations of dark skin indicate that dark skin is devalued, whereas light skin is valued. The hegemonic representation that elevates light skin over dark skin and guides the behavior of the skin bleachers has its roots in socializing institutions of the larger cultural milieu. The interaction of the government, the church, the education system, the media, formal culture, and popular culture from the colonial period to the present sends repeated messages that light skin is superior to dark skin.

Link:

http://jbs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0021934707307852v1

Oooooooh realllllly now...so skin bleaching is only a problem in Jamaica is it??

Let me educate you darling!!

This is an excerpt from a article online.
Ugogurl.com

I am revealing this information to you now because I do not want you to be shocked like I was, the first time I went to Africa. Skin bleaching is prevalent in Africa. Yes, I said skin bleaching. I was not on the Continent twenty-four hours before I saw it. I saw that Black is not necessarily viewed as beautiful in the Motherland.
The first time I went to Africa, I flew Air Afrique on my way to Benin and I had a 10-hour layover in the Ivory Coast, so the airline put us up in this very small nondescript local motel outside of Abidjan on the oceanfront. We arrived at this hotel at approximately 2:30 AM.
I woke up that next morning to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. I was in Africa; I was back home; I was very happy. I woke up and met my Nigerian friends and one East Indian friend I met on the plane for breakfast. After we ate, we went for a stroll on the beach. There were boys on the beach engaged in what appeared to be soccer practice and there were small fishing boats going out and coming back with loads of fish in their nets -- and then I saw her. She was an average looking woman in her early twenties wearing very causal African attire with a matching headscarf. She was standing in the shade and had this white cream all over her face, arms, legs, hands and feet. I first thought it was suntan lotion but it was on too thick. I asked my friend from Nigeria what she had on and he said that she was trying to get "clair" which in French slang means to become light. I was shocked. "Not in Africa," I thought. However, there she was, standing in front of my face. She was attired in African garb but trying to "de-Africanize" herself. I heard about African-Americans in the 1930s and 1940s doing such things, but I could not believe that this was going on in the present time.
Bleaching is big problem in Africa, with mostly women doing it but the men do it also. Also skin bleaching is very dangerous and many African countries have been trying to ban it, launching public service campaigns about the harmful effects that come from bleaching your skin. For example, The Gambia has strict laws on the import and export of skin bleaching products. If someone is caught bringing such products into The Gambia, they are subject to fines up to $2,000 and/or three years imprisonment.
A horrible example of the dangers of skin bleaching occurred in Ghana in the boxing ring. Ghanaian Boxer Percy Oblitei Commeu lost his belt and lost some of his skin in a national super-featherweight bout. The boxer's opponent opened a cut on his right cheek that his cut man could not close. Additionally, his nostrils and his right ear tore open, leaving him bleeding profusely. His skin was literally peeling off of his face. The reason why his skin fell off his face was skin bleaching.


Also here are some more links just to help bring you up to speed!
BBC News | AFRICA | The heavy cost of light skin

Skin bleaching products in Africa | Journal of Drugs in Dermatology | Find Articles at BNET

Fade to White - News - Village Voicepage 1 - Village Voice

In fact the problem with bleaching skin is so devestating in Africa...that alot of African countries are trying to ban it.

No need to thank me...glad I could help!!

Well, I didn't read all that. He obviously didn't have a good experience in Jamaica but like someone else said, people on this site love JA. I'm sure experiences like this happen in other countries as well. I've only had great times in Jamaica with the place and the people

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I had so much fun looking up links to prove him wrong. The guy is so biased...he's just spouting off anything he can grab on...even though they are all partial truths or not true at all!!

Plenty of African people visit and never have a problem so either he's not telling us the full story...or he just had bad luck. I know white people who've been harrassed in African. The world just sometimes isn't fair...deal with it!!

You are just now figuring out that he isn't interested in a conversation? It's taken two threads... Jammie... you are slippin' girl. No person who comes onto a site, guns ablazin', with his mind already made up about an issue wants to have a real conversation. He just wants to spew hatred. Kind of ironic, considering his beef.

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There are no words in the English language to capture my feelings...

LOL yea but he's fun to bug Mi will lock down this thread in time.

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When did I ever say that? Maybe you should have read what I wrote previously, before swiftly jumping to conclusions. I said that Jamaica was one of the few regions in the world where skin bleaching has reached epidemic proportions. Your links only prove that skin bleaching is a problem in some countries in West Africa, nothing more. However, unlike Jamaica where men prefer white and brown over black, the vast majority of men in those few regions of West Africa where skin bleaching is practiced have no attraction to bleached skin. According to one of your links:


Many of the women who use these products told me they do so because Malian men prefer women with bleached skin.
But male musician Al Hassan Soumali disagrees. "I don't think Malian men like bleached women," he says. "It's better for Malian women to change their minds."

Ash, the only reason you are even tolerated on a site like this is because so many Jamaicans suffer from a white-washed, colonial mentality. In future, I suggest you go make yourself useful at the end of your boyfriend's c*ck.

You haven't proved anything. You showed me a link about available medical products in West Africa and you accuse me of "spouting off anything he can grab on"? It seems that you are the only one grasping at straws...