Fruit Baskets and Floral Arrangements

When I look into the Caribbean, and anywhere where the African resides, I see beauty and I am reminded of floral arrangements and fruit baskets :D. A plethora of people, ideas, ideals, philosophies and hues. I know people usually go to the rainbow as a metaphor for broad spectrum beauty, and it does fit my purpose, but the rainbow lacks the depth of diversity I'm trying to portray, and a fruit basket , with its grapes and oranges and plums and apples and mangoes, or the floral arrangement with the roses, and orchids, and oleanders just does it much better. But the fruit basket and the floral arrangement do all share the feature I'm going to highlight, they are all cut off from their roots, and as such their beauty is fleeting, if anything it represents a facade of something already dead, and at best dying.

Marcus Mosiah Garvey said that a people without knowledge of their history are like a tree without its roots, and I look around in this fruit basket and floral arrangement (yes I'm in it) and see no roots. I look beneath it at the foundation and see wicker lined with decorative tissue and cut stems in water and that green thing - no roots. A rooted mahogany tree does not ask whether or not it is a mahogany tree, it knows it. A polished mahoganhy chair may, however, need to be reminded every now and again of it mahogany heritage. Comedian Kat Williams did a joke about tigers in a zoo, wherein the tigers begin to question whether or not they are tigers or "vicious ass koala bears." Until a break in the zoo routine occurs, the tigers are a shell of themselves and in limbo where their self image is concerned.
Hello Black people!! We are the tigers. We are the beautiful, rootless fruits and flowers, we are dead to ourselves and unsure of our heritage. Honestly, unlike the self questioning tigers, most of us do not know it or accept it.

I did not want to talk about it, I was really trying to avoid the entire debate and maybe blog about music again, or something else, but I am here at 4 in the AM writing about it; bleaching!
I was in a few online debates about it and well Sade's "Another Rasta Rant", pretty much hit it up already, but then I was here vibsing in my magical FB music group and listening to Tarrus Riley's "Shaka Zulu Pickney" and felt the need to write.
Bleaching is once again being highlighted in the popular media here in the Caribbean thanks to the new stylings of Vybz Kartel and his unashamed attitude about the entire thing. Bleaching has, for years, been a matter highlighted time and time again the the Jamaican media, with newspaper articles, television news segments and television specials, each time portrayed as something affecting the poorest of the population. (The middle and upper middle classes have other, more discreet ways of skin lightening - marriage/breeding for example. The underlying mentality or rationale, however, is the same.)

There is a running train of thought in society that, the fairer the skin, or the closer to white that one is the more success you will have or at least the more avenues/oppurtunities are available to you. Given the historical context that society is built upon this maybe an ugly notion or thought to some, but a quiet real one, that is it a real perception that people have. The lighter skinned blacks are the ones that dominate the popular media, dem and dem good, pretty hair. As the girl in the video said, no one can tell her anything at night in the club because she is white. So I know there are many out there that think that we live in a "post-racial" era, lol, or in a "colour blind society - not yet folks. Take a look at these videos here below and see why the society, and note that when I say the society I mean the global society, is not yet post racial or colour blind.

Video one is British based. The creams are illegal in Europe, but only to sell regionally, but can be made and exported. If they are too dangerous for Europeans why would they not be too dangerous for the rest of the world? Note that in the video the seized shipment being smuggled back into Europe is coming from Africa.

 

Video 2 is not so much about bleaching, but the girl Jenna does highlight and manifest within herself, the mentality of society taken to the confused extremes that lead to bleaching.

 

Video 3 is the first part of Tyra's episode about bleaching and also highlights that it is a fairly long standing African American subculture as well. (notice that these women's faces appear more matted than actually lightened and this is what I meant about Bajan women's faces looking over washed)

Notice that this is not a Caribbean phenomenon but exists in the "post-racial" American society and Britain, and from what we can gather from the first video shown, the continent, Africa, as well. This is a problem present in all post-colonial and former slave societies. Interestingly enough, the places with highest cited usage are poorest of the countries on that list.
Until recently bleaching was unheard of, or at least not spoken about in the popular and news media and seemed to evade the public sphere here in Barbados. Honestly, I always used to wonder sometimes about some women I used to see with faces that did not seem to match the rest of their heads, not to mention their bodies, and I said to myself these resemble the bleachers I see in the Jamaican and other international media. I, however, also said to myself that I never heard about bleaching in Barbados and dismissed them as women inept at applying makeup properly or persons who over washed their faces (yuh know what I mean too, dem girls dat does be washing dem face every chance them get at school, especially right before they leave to go to town on evenings after school). Apparently, I was wrong because they were most likely bleaching, and it has been happening here for a long time, but as a girl told me, "nuhbody din studying nuffin so back den, is only now dat Kartel start up pun it dat people talking." It really should not be surprising though, considering the reasons for bleaching are: poor self image and a belief in the concept that lighter is better, that it would have a subculture presence in Barbados and be overlooked by the media and society.

Well niggas (omg he called us niggas), guess what?!?!          wait for it, wait for it...     it is time to wake up and stop this shit.
I know it is not as simple as "wake up and stop it". It most definately is not as simple as, "when Kartel moves on, so too will this trend," because by and large this is not merely a trend, there is nothing trendy about it. It is a serious psychological problem deeply entrenched in the psyche of a diaspora longtold that they are second, third and fourth class citizens, not of any particular country but of the world. This psychological problem is socially and culturally maintained as the result of the colonial and neo-colonial world paradigm.
The world cannot get to a post-racial or colour blind state when the past is yet to be overcome. James Brown's song cannot do it, Bob Marley cannot do it, Michael Jackson cannot do it, H.I.M. Haile Selassie I in his speech to the United Nations cannot do it, Barack Obama cannot do it, and the month of February sure as hell will do it. It is a problem historically rooted and the first thing that must happen is that that history has to be properly and fully understood. This means not leaving out the bad parts or misleading people with omittances, like some historians traditionally do, neither does it mean romanticising and skewing the oppressed side as some other historians do. From there you work on changing the social elements used, overtly and discreetly, to create and maintain the existing psyche and attempt to neutralise and reverse them. This can only be done once the contemporary situation is understood through its historical context, so remember that it is history first before attempting to correct.
One has to see that the mindset and rationale behind bleaching is not exclusive to bleaching, and that it is deeply institutionalised. It is so entrenched in fact that some parts of it are seen almost as natural features of modern, contemporary society. I do not have to list or highlight any examples, you know them. (if you are from Mars, or live the delusion of a colour blind world, just listen to some of the rationalising given in the videos. The girl Jenna from the first Tyra clip manifests some of those things)


As I said we are pretty and diverse like the fruit baskets and floral arrangements, and just as rootless and slowly moving to a wilting stage. It is time to be more like orchards and gardens; lastingly beautiful and firmly rooted. This is not just for my African/Black people, but all humanity, just love yourself and respect others. Big up yourself without belittling others, that is pretty much the answer really.

I just like live music, especially live reggae, ain't nothing like a stageshow. <3