Letters

The Miss Jamaica colour issue

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Many people will probably disagree with what I am about to say, but to tell you the truth ­ I don't care. I have noticed that although we are a predominantly black country, we have had only a few dark-skinned girls represent us over the years.

Why is that? Is dark not beautiful?

Sometimes when I watch these beauty pageants I feel really embarrassed to call myself Jamaican. I mean isn't this kind of trend giving dark-skinned sisters an inferiority complex? I just don't get it.

If you run through the list of all the girls that have represented Jamaica over the years, most have not been too dark. I am what you would refer to as caramel complexion but what has happened to the rich chocolate girls? Come on! Open up your eyes and realise that Jamaicans on a whole have a skin-color issue. If yu nuh have tall hair an brown skin yu nuh look good. Why yu tink the whole a di gal dem down a Jamaica a bleach? It has been hammered into their heads from day one that lighter is better. Real slavery mentality.

Why is this so? The media has dictated to us for so long about what a stereotypical beauty should look like. The only way to even start to change this is for more dark-skinned girls to have the confidence enough to go out there and influence the media.

Ask yourself this, how many dark-skinned girls have the confidence to actually enter Miss Jamaica. The answer is, NOT ENOUGH. Because of self-hatred, we see light complexion as beauty. And because of this same factor, some women won't have a baby for a man with darker skin, and the men go to white women to procreate.

What about 'Out of Many One People'? We all know that back when that motto was formulated it was the lighter shade that got all the privileges and had all the power. Maybe what they wanted to say was ­ out of many, one people, only the light shade, rule and overpower the others.

Jamaicans do have a major issue with skin colour. Things have changed somewhat but the underlying issues are still there. Yes, the percentage of dark-skinned girls entering beauty contests has increased but the fact remains that Jamaicans see beauty more in terms of light over dark. Let's agree that Miss World competitions are commercial events, supported by the largely white cosmetic and fashion industries. They play with our fantasies in an effort to sell products. If we subscribe to these competitions we should accept that a eurocentric looking girl stands a better chance of winning.

Ever since judges were pelted by an angry crowd in the '80s for selecting a unpopular, light-skinned girl over a charming, more attractive dark girl for the Miss Jamaica title, we've seen these competitions 'darken up' a bit, but we have also done less well at Miss World as a result.

If we are fed on a steady diet of Hollywood's white fantasies, Barbie doll's plastic fiction of beauty from childhood, why shouldn't our notion of beauty be messed up? A light-skinned child is also likely to get the sort of social affirmation that helps them build the positive self-image, self-esteem and confidence that makes them enter and shine through in competitions of this type.

We must also say that with the 'ethnic' look in vogue in the modelling industry, very dark-skinned, exotic (captivating looking) girls are the currency of trade as a result some pretty white girls are being discriminated against.

Every time this issue of race and colour in Jamaica comes up there is someone saying we are taking things out of proportion and makes some references to chips on shoulders. But this argument keeps coming up again and again and there doesn't seem to be any support group or initiatives to sort out all these people walking around with chips on their shoulders.

I would like them to convince me that in a country with a severe shortage of opportunity that lighter coloured skin doesn't give you additional entitlement rights.

I am etc.,

S. FAIRCLOUGH

St. Ann,

Jamaica

email: bjlo@thevortex.com