It seems that Jamaica has become some kind of poster child for bleaching since a few years ago when that video/documentary came out with a woman wrapping her body in saran wrap and explaining the process of bleaching. Since then, more Caucasians have come out to Jamaica to explore the idea of skin bleaching and now we can see videos all over the internet with Caucasians trying to wrap their minds around what could possibly lead these people to be doing this to their skin, like this one for example…
If you take a close look at the title of the video, it says “A look inside West Indian Skin Bleach,” however West Indian, in this case, was limited to Jamaica and I suppose the newly discovered island of Ochi, which is just a hawk and spit away from Jamaica as Dutty Berry informed us. But, on a more serious note, though Jamaica gets a lot of the world’s attention as a West Indian Nation, in a video exploring bleaching in the West Indies, one would think that we would get a glimpse into the situation facing other West Indian nations, but since Jamaica is the poster child for everything negative in the Caribbean, thus the clickbait for this epidemic, I guess it was too much of a stretch to do a proper documentary exploring the general issue of bleaching throughout the West Indies.
Every video on the interweb that speaks on the issue of bleaching seems to only stop with Africa and Jamaica and then the occasional mention of it being an issue in the Asian community as well. But what you will never see, is a Caucasian travelling miles to do whole documentaries on the perils of skin bleaching in Asia. I am not here to defend bleaching or to defend Jamaica for allowing bleaching to become such a problem that it has now become part of our countries supposed identity. Jamaica, the land of sun, sea, sand, sex, and bleaching.
My real gripe is the fact that very little research is done to really probe the issue thus demonstrating the real circumstances that contribute to this issue and the extent to which the island is affected by this supposed epidemic. I was born and raised in Jamaica. I have had two mothers, three sisters and many friends and neighbours who are unambiguously black people, however, bleaching was never a part of my daily experience. I have lived in different communities in Jamaica and travelled the length and breadth of the country and I can conclusively say bleaching is not an epidemic in Jamaica.
Bleaching, much like the weed smoking trope, is done in concentrated communities in Jamaica and in entities that can be classified as literal sub-cultures. Like the subculture Rastafarianism, the Dancehall subculture is pretty much where you will find the people who are convinced that their lives have been made easier by lightening their skin. These people can generally be found it what can be classified as low-income ghettos and in some cases sparingly in rural areas where parties play a significant role in the economics of the area. Of course, I wouldn’t dear conclude that Jamaicans across all strata don’t bleach but the fact cannot be ignored that bleaching in Jamaica isn’t as widespread as these propaganda pieces try to make it out to be.
What also grinds my nerves are posts like this where as soon as someone sees anything that speaks to skin lightening, then Jamaica is the first place that comes to mind. Every video on social media that speaks to colorism\self hatred etc cannot be exemplified without mentioning Jamaica. Meanwhile, Whitenicious, an expensive BLEACHING cream made by Dencia, an African woman, was sold out in America within minutes of the release. Moreover, the owner continues to have a booming business to this day and recently hired Black China to be it’s spokesperson, promoting this nonsense in Africa.
What I know to be true, is that there are different levels of bleaching and many, like the users of Dencia’s cream Whitenicious, are able to hide behind it’s just lighting and filters when they were dark skinned in 2006 and now light-skinned in 2019. These people are the ones who are able to bleach expensively, their bleaching isn’t as vulgar as those in lower income situations like the majority of bleachers in Jamaica. They don’t buy their products from pop-up Chinese wholesales or have to wrap their skin in saran wrap, not shower for days and hide from the sun to secure their ”colour.” They’re not exposed to the raw chemicals that can be found in lower income bleaching and thus are not prone to the immediate and obvious repercussions like skin blistering, tears in the skin, and extreme sun sensitivity. Their bleaching also isn’t a constant process of rubbing chemicals routinely and reverts as soon as they’re not able to consistently rub, as in the case of many Jamaicans. Their bleaching is literally just skin deep.
Which brings us to the Lord of Jamaican bleaching, Vybez Kartel, who after a stint in jail, is now just as dark as when he arrived on the dancehall scene in the late 90s-2000s. To quote one of his lyrics ”di gal dem love off me bleach out face….Me Michael cake soap Jackson”
This line is a testament to the far-reaching and overarching effects of the American media’s myopic allusions to how one has to look to be successful. Michael Jackson, an American was the pioneer to the now seemingly widespread issue of bleaching in Jamaica. Though Michael was fighting with his own inner demons, it would be remiss to not highlight the racialization of media, entertainments and success that drove Michael Jackson and others like him to go to those extremes to be recognized in a context (music industry) that can be black in every aspect except skin.
I sincerely believe that the issue of self-hate and colorism cannot be thoroughly examined and all the fingers get pointed in the right directions without examining the issue of racial mixing. It seems to be a pandemic of black men, especially, not wanting to procreate with black women and have loudly advertised to the world how they don’t want black kids. Not too long ago NFL athlete Jahleel Addae and a bunch of black men surrounded by their white wives and girlfriends decided it was a great idea to ”cheers to more light-skinned babies.” While they were busy doing this, not long after (in social media years) Gabrielle and D. Wade’s daughter was brutally dragged on the shade room, as no one seems to be able to exercise any kind of decorum when it comes to tearing down black women, even black babies are not spared.
It is my estimation, that this issue of black people men the world over, going out of their way, ignoring all dangers to create mixed kids which they can then prop up on a global sphere to represent black people women ( mind you mixed girl babies are a prize, mixed boy babies, not so much). Just as fast as the images of the Zendaya(s) and Yaara Shahidi(s) are spread across the world, the brutality and cruelty towards unambiguous blackness spread just as quickly and effectively. Just the images of the mixed black people of the world invoke a supercilious nature in those who can relate to them conversely the disdain and venom for unambiguous blackness black femininity evoked self-loathing in those who are on the receiving end of those targets. This perpetuates the cycle, as we create more mixed people, unambiguous blackness is pushed further into the background and continues to further solidify the issue of self-hate.
We know that there are nuances to this whole bleaching/colourism/self-hatred argument. These nuances are rooted in history, culture, music, all aspects of life. Bleaching, however, is one such manifestation of the larger global problem. I simply say, instead of taking a moral high ground and pointing the finger at Jamaica and Africa, maybe, one should take the time to look at the numerous manifestations of this issue in their own backyards and also how the spotlight they have (American mass media), compounds the issue worldwide.
Ultimately, bleaching and incessantly having mixed kids are two sides of the same coin. But, only one side of the coin causes permanent damage to the image of blackness. Both bleaching and actively breeding yourself out are issues that should be addressed in all black societies because when it comes to self-hatred and colourism, there are equal fingers to point, no matter which hemisphere you’re black in.
Dandilyonz-4-U 