Rastafari is right: we are royals. Spice is right: we don't realise it. The time is ripe for the church to address it...intentionally, in a sustained manner and unapologetically .
What are your worse childhood memories/experiences? Those that stand out most for me centre around the constant assault I suffered because of my complexion! Yes, I like, Spice, am a victim of colourISM - at the hand of adults and children, family and non-family members inside and outside the church. Jah know, iya! Black Hypocrisy is real! It was so bad, one often defended one’s self by attacking those who by whom one is othered – “Black is beauty; red is ‘malata trash’.” One also found refuge in positive symbols associated with blackness “Gwe! Black ina di national flag. A beh!” Sometimes one pretended one didn’t hear what was said / being done.
Behind the brave face, below the pretense of being unaffected by / immune to the attacks on one’s selfhood, beneath the fight back reflexes were deep pain and hurt. The psychological wounds festered into feelings/thoughts of dejection, self-hate, low self-esteem and of being inferior.
What was for me an ongoing internal battle ended in split seconds early one Saturday. I was doing my market rounds, as I did religiously every Saturday morning. Upon approaching the entrance to the market, a Dread greeted me with three unforgettable words: “Hail, black prince!” That. Changed. Everything! It was an angelic encounter. I refer to him as my angel. His greeting was a speech act that caused me to regain that sense of peace/comfort with and happiness about my skin that I lost when I became conscious that one’s complexion determines how one is perceived/treated; just before the ISM began to inform the expectations I had of iself and others.
Sadly, in my experience, the church never seriously / intentionally engaged our colourISM reality. In fact, in practice, the church reinforced it.
Sure, one would have learnt "Jesus loves the little children...red and yellow, black and white..." and one would have memorised (at least part of) Psalm 149:14 in Sunday School, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful. I know that full well.” Well, mi neva kno notn, ino! And it doesn’t help when you grow up and learn that the Hebrew of that verse is syntactically and lexically shaky.
Moreover, some of the most vicious blows to my selfhood came from the hand of committed Christians!
The church in the Caribbean should take a leaf out of Rastafari’s page in addressing the evil that colourISM - and on a sustained basis. Not only is this ISM psychologically deadly; it is a hinderance to national development; it robs us of the fullness of life in Jesus, the Christ, that Caribbean theology envisions. We should, for example, go back to Marria Harris’ work “Fashion Me a People” and draw upon labour of love of other Black Christian educators who have sought to bring Christian Education into dialogue with the condition of being black. Last year, I attended a United Church-sponsored event at the UWI and I was dumbstruck at how many youths at the university level are affected by colourISM in contemporary Jamaica. Somehow, I had assumed we’d progressed beyond my earlier years.
Humanity, like God, is crowned with glory and honour (royal language [Ps 8:5]) and are made in God’s image (more royal language [Gen 1;26-26]). Rasta was always right; we are queens, princesses, kings and queens.
I give thanks and praises fi I guardian angel who cause I fi sight I true self.
As a child I always felt that being darker in complexion would get you nowhere, I always felt that once you where lighter in complexion you wouldn't be told know and success would always be on your side. Bowy oh bowy that was just a figment of my crazy imagination