Riff Raff
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- Aug 13, 2022
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Jamaican dance hall artist Spice has a song titled “Black Hypocrisy.” The video for the song features Spice criticizing people of African descent who look down on those with darker skin.
The video became the top video on YouTube in Jamaica. It also brought the taboo subject of colorism into the open.
Although 90 percent of Jamaicans are of African descent, many people in positions of power in Jamaica have lighter skin and straight hair, as do most the country’s beauty queens.
“In Jamaica, shades of brown and shades of black” are not seen as beautiful as lighter shades, said Sonjah Stanley Niaah, a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies.
Conversely, those with dark skin say they face discrimination — the darker the skin, the worse the treatment. Spice, whose real name is Grace Hamilton, said she has endured such discrimination and wanted to call it out in her music. In a song and video, Spice appears with tears streaming down her face as she details being called “black and shine and dirty.”
“What I was trying to achieve with the song and the video was to bring awareness to colorism,” Hamilton said. “I am using myself as an example of what people from the black community are causing these young girls to do,” she added, referring to the practice of bleaching, in which people apply chemicals to their skin to lighten its color. “I am deliberately showing them that when you discriminate them by the complexion, this is why there are so many women in Jamaica that are bleaching because society will make them feel that they will look better that way.”
According to a Jamaican government survey from 2017, about 300,000 people in the island country bleach their skin.
Despite that, public discussion of colorism, which is akin to racism within a race, is not common. The lack of conversation can be attributed to shame, says Nadine Giscombe, 41, a secretary. “You know, it’s embarrassment,” she said. Considering the widespread use of bleaching, she added, the silence shows “a whole lot of hypocrisy.”
“I think Spice has used a form of dance hall music to make an incisive statement on a nasty issue that we have experienced here in Jamaica,” she said.
Leethan Grandison, 29, who has dark skin and hair that is not straight, said he experienced colorism directly: The CEO of a company told him he was too dark to take the public marketing role for which he had successfully interviewed.
“Honestly, I was taken aback by it,” Grandison says. “I was beyond words.”
Grandison thinks Spice has made a “genius” move with this song and video. “It opens the conversation,” he said. “We don’t necessarily talk about it in the open and say, ‘Yes, colorism exists in Jamaica.’ ”
The video became the top video on YouTube in Jamaica. It also brought the taboo subject of colorism into the open.
Although 90 percent of Jamaicans are of African descent, many people in positions of power in Jamaica have lighter skin and straight hair, as do most the country’s beauty queens.
“In Jamaica, shades of brown and shades of black” are not seen as beautiful as lighter shades, said Sonjah Stanley Niaah, a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies.
Conversely, those with dark skin say they face discrimination — the darker the skin, the worse the treatment. Spice, whose real name is Grace Hamilton, said she has endured such discrimination and wanted to call it out in her music. In a song and video, Spice appears with tears streaming down her face as she details being called “black and shine and dirty.”
“What I was trying to achieve with the song and the video was to bring awareness to colorism,” Hamilton said. “I am using myself as an example of what people from the black community are causing these young girls to do,” she added, referring to the practice of bleaching, in which people apply chemicals to their skin to lighten its color. “I am deliberately showing them that when you discriminate them by the complexion, this is why there are so many women in Jamaica that are bleaching because society will make them feel that they will look better that way.”
According to a Jamaican government survey from 2017, about 300,000 people in the island country bleach their skin.
Despite that, public discussion of colorism, which is akin to racism within a race, is not common. The lack of conversation can be attributed to shame, says Nadine Giscombe, 41, a secretary. “You know, it’s embarrassment,” she said. Considering the widespread use of bleaching, she added, the silence shows “a whole lot of hypocrisy.”
“I think Spice has used a form of dance hall music to make an incisive statement on a nasty issue that we have experienced here in Jamaica,” she said.
Leethan Grandison, 29, who has dark skin and hair that is not straight, said he experienced colorism directly: The CEO of a company told him he was too dark to take the public marketing role for which he had successfully interviewed.
“Honestly, I was taken aback by it,” Grandison says. “I was beyond words.”
Grandison thinks Spice has made a “genius” move with this song and video. “It opens the conversation,” he said. “We don’t necessarily talk about it in the open and say, ‘Yes, colorism exists in Jamaica.’ ”
), I became under attack for my color-blind approach by today's 'woke' mobsters on Reddit. Then I witnessed the hate, slander and lies since around 2015 by those same Leftist Democrats along with their cancel culture mob attacks and social media censorship. Next were the racist verbal and physical attacks and violence against America in 2020.
