Bleaching their way to acceptance

By Jaevion Nelson

Skin bleaching among the poor is a very complex practice and (thankfully?) it is back on the national agenda. The motivation and results vary. Wealthy folks do it too, but their methods are more expensive and accepted.

Petra Alaine Robinson (2011), in Skin Bleaching in Jamaica: A Colonial Legacy, argues that, although the desire for lighter skin colour is a global issue, it is of particular relevance and significance in Jamaica because "the majority of the population is of African descent, yet there is an elevation of Eurocentric values and a denigration of Afrocentric values in many facets of life, specifically in the promotion of light skin as an indicator of beauty and social status".

Even the newborn knows complexion matters a great deal here - no matter how much we pretend and deny it. Your skin tone can and often determines whether you appear in an ad, if your picture is printed on The Gleaner or Observer's to-die-for social pages, your employment prospects, pay scale, how many sellers in the market will approach you to make a purchase, and even affects your chances of winning a pageant.

As Damien Williams said in a Facebook comment, "Colour and class intersect/overlap and mobility and colour/class are correlated. Therefore, apart from wanting to belong, the poor, black man or woman just wanna step up inna life like anybody else, and colour is his/her transport."

Last week's subjective/potentially offensive episode of TVJ's 'All Angles' about bleaching was a cosmetic attempt to understand the underlying reasons why so many poor Jamaicans opt to do such an evidently harmful act. Dionne Jackson-Miller asked those featured some very poignant questions in this regard, but their attempt to explain the 'colourism' and 'shadism' they experience was a joke for many.

A FARCE

Another Facebook user, Deneice Falconer, had this to say: "The feature was a comfort to the hearts of the mentally enslaved who gawked at, ridiculed and denigrated the members of this subculture because of their lower socio-economic status. But, it is only a farce, because the gawkers and mockers are suffering from the same self-hate, only expressed in other ways. So, it delights them to identify someone else who 'hates' himself more than they do."

Bleaching isn't self-hate if we fail to create a more equitable society where the pursuit of opportunity and happiness isn't predicated on your complexion and/or social status.

Skin bleaching is a result of normalised social conditioning that 'anyting black nuh gud'. Vybz Kartel wrote a compelling chapter about 'the black child' in his book, The Voice of the Jamaican Ghetto, to this effect.

Albert Williams, a Jamaican living in Canada, said on Facebook: "My acceptance of my skin came through defiant resistance and determination to love my damn skin. This was hard because I was constantly reminded how dark I am and that I should feel ashamed of how I look. I refuse to ridicule anybody for bleaching. Being dark-skinned in Jamaica is not easy."

NEED TO BELONG

I believe opportunity is the common thread in all of this. And yes, they didn't necessarily get what they wanted, but hearing you are pretty/beautiful for the first time after you started bleaching is usually good enough. Yes, they admit to experiencing employment discrimination and are aware of adverse effects such as skin cancer. But isn't all this worth the risk to feel a sense of belonging and hopefully climb the socio-economic ladder, especially when your attempts through the established institutions created to facilitate your development were futile because the same institutions hindered it?

The pervasiveness of associating importance and privileges with one's colour in independent Jamaica perpetuate the practice of skin bleaching. Not too long ago, your ability to be a bank teller was on the basis of your skin colour, length of hair and so-called beauty. Oh, do poor black women win beauty pageants? Hardly! Well unless it's Mini Miss Backto. I wouldn't be too quick to blame slavery, although it had a strong hand in this. We've had over a century and a half of freedom and 50 years of independence to correct this. Instead, we perpetuate the injustice of colour discrimination through our culture and music, in our churches and schools, government and private-sector entities, and the very sentiments we express daily.

Too many of us are unwilling to accept the underlying issues which perpetuate skin bleaching. No campaign to reduce or end the practice will work until we rid ourselves of the ridicule and judgement towards 'bleachers' and address the fact that light skin is privileged.

Jaevion Nelson is a youth development, HIV and human rights advocate. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and jaevion@gmail.com.