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The culture of politics - Slavery, Snobbery and Portia Simpson-Miller

One enduring effect of plantation slavery which has come down to societies like Jamaica, is the notion that white represents what is good and black represents the opposite; hence the disdain of black people by even by their own.

On the plantation, white people had the money, the power, the education and the Christianity of a God who was said to have a Son who was white; naturally they came to be identified in the minds of the black slaves with progress and worth. On the other hand the black slaves themselves, stripped of their dignity and selfhood, and allowed no material possessions and education saw themselves as worthless.

Portia Simpson-Miller

Too black and dumb to rule?

In the minds of many Jamaicans, afflicted with the residual effects of the plantation mindset, she reminds them of whom they are – persons of little worth in their own eyes. The only thing that gives them an idea of worth is a graduate degree, which she doesn’t have

Of course the white slave owner had a vested interest in conditioning the black man to think of himself as worthless; if not he, the white man, could lose his investment and even his life. It happened.

As we know economics, location and time change but ideas don’t, at least not as easily, so centuries after the plantation in a country which is modern, white people are held to be superior to black people.

If a product or service comes from a country of white people, it is held to be good for Jamaicans, or better than what they can produce for themselves. If England were a black country of the descendants of slaves, and the Law Lords of the Privy Council were black men, would the Jamaica Labor Party, and its supporters be fighting the government to retain the Privy Council? I think not.

Today black is despised in Jamaica, by blacks themselves. When I grew up in Manchester in the seventies there was man who lived near to us with a family including five stalwart young men; one of them was blacker than the others, and his father said he hated him, for “anything too black, neva too good”. After this man’s youngest child, a girl, fell in love with an ambitious young man: all hell broke loose; for despite having a good job with a bauxite company and able to support her, her father beat her mercilessly, to leave him, “For anything too black, neva too good”.

A church sister of mine who is married to a Jamaican black man of a lighter skin, with a few curls in his hair, once told me that from she was a young girl she had decided not to marry a man as black as herself, - “Mek mi pickney dem, come look like monkey".

Fresh from the plantation, how did many black Jamaicans deal with this destructive mindset. They chose two ways: a rejection of everything black in an effort to forget their denigration on the plantation; and education, to elevate themselves above their black countrymen.

Some people did and still do seek to change their appearance, by bleaching their hair straight, and skin color light; those with more money have gone under the knife to straighten their flat noses, and slice away the thickness of their lips.

But many black Jamaicans chose education, and with some justification, for it had not only had the power to lift one out of the worthlessness associated with blackness, but also put one genuinely into progress. But my experience with many formally educated, or degree holding Jamaicans is that their education is more to them than a vehicle of material and social advancement: it is a justification of a disdain for and snobbery towards those blacks not so educated.

When education is pursued for economic and social reasons, the recipient, is sympathetic, to the plight of the uneducated, and is willing to help them, not to disdain and dismiss them as worthless and without ambition. But for the most part the opposite is true in Jamaica. The educated, those with degrees, despise those without. It begins early. I remember that at primary school some children would change as soon as the common entrance results were announced: they were now going to high school and couldn’t play with others going to secondary school. A farmer in Clarendon, once told me of “schooling” his wife and sending her to teachers college, only to have her walk out on him, because her friends told her now that she is a teacher, she couldn’t be with a farmer. Many women who have gone to college make it plain, that they don’t want to marry a tradesman, tailor, mason or carpenter – despite earning their positions through the blood and sweat of tradesmen – their fathers. And I was roundly cursed by the grandmother of a young lady who liked me; she had discovered some endearing words I had addressed to her granddaughter – a teacher; she cursed me in the fashion - “A Teacher you look nuh bwoy". I had graduated from only a secondary school.

Which is what is happening with Portia Simpson-Miller, in her bid to become leader of the PNP and Prime Minister of this country. In the minds of many Jamaicans, afflicted with the residual effects of the plantation mindset, she reminds them of whom they are – persons of little worth in their own eyes. The only thing that gives them an idea of worth is a graduate degree, which she doesn’t have. So they reject her in favor of men with graduate degrees; men who have proved themselves unable to lead the country.

It isn’t about education, but about blackness and what it reminds them of. Edward Seaga never gained a graduate degree, yet his intellect was never questioned for lack of it. Because Edward Seaga is white. Similarly Bruce Golding, has only a first degree, but his intellect has never been questioned. Because Bruce Golding is a Brown skin man. Pearnel Charles was ridiculed for wanting to lead the JLP, despite having a first degree, as Seaga and Golding have. Aha! But Pearnel is black – maybe too black.

A doctoral degree doesn’t say that the holder is more brilliant than a person without it; all it says is that he/ she studied something to a certain level in an institution and was awarded the diploma; native ability is entirely something else.

Neither Dr. Philips nor Dr. Davies have demonstrated to me that they posses any intellect with more weight than that possessed by Mrs. Simpson-Miller. What they have certainly done is prove beyond doubt, that the sum, total of their degrees and experience has not equipped them to understand the problems of this country.

I’m not saying Mrs. Simpson Miller can do any better than these men have done, only that if she can or can’t, it isn’t because she has or doesn’t have one letter behind her name.

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