Absent from the sustained uproar over Chris Gayle’s boorish behaviour towards a white female reporter is mention of an ignored aspect of Gayle’s conduct that is typical of a large percentage of black Jamaican men with a few dollars in their pockets or those with such aspirations: Intimate partner colourism.

Most such black men (crassly or not) actively and assertively select and court as partners, lighter-skinned women. It’s the unusual, educated and ambitious Jamaican black man who selects a dark-skinned woman as his intimate partner, much less selects a woman whose skin colour is darker than his own.

Colourism drives the assumption that mixed heritage is a positive attribute. This is why the term “browning” in not a neutral description; it is a compliment while being called “dark-skinned” is mostly derogatory. It is implicit in the comment that so and so is “pretty for a dark-skinned girl” — though political correctness has reduced this public expression. Colourism assumes that one is race neutral. When issues of race are raised, Jamaica’s “Out of many one people” motto means that colourism doesn’t exist.

This phenomenon is observed everywhere: at social gatherings, in the workplace, in churches, among leadership groups, among families, friends, associates and acquaintances, in images of privilege and social status, in newspapers, and now during Gayle’s televised interview in Australia.

Yet, raising intimate partner colourism in Jamaica is bound to unleash dismissive and disapproving snarls from those who deny that colourism exists here, despite overwhelming evidence that it is exceedingly widespread and deeply affects economic and social life.

The World Bank describes wealth in Jamaica as “distributed along racial lines”, which is another way of saying that skin colour is an important determinant and indicator of wealth and status in Jamaica. Jamaica’s colourism prompted celebrated writer, Malcolm Gladwell, to describe Jamaica as “the most acutely colour-conscious nation on the planet” and to recount the story of his own Jamaican aunt denying her darker-skinned daughter in the presence of a light-skinned man she wanted to impress.

Recognising Jamaica’s deeply embedded and extensive colourism, numerous dark-skinned Jamaicans bleach their skin to try and secure unearned benefits they see bestowed on lighter-skinned Jamaicans and foreigners.

In Jamaica it is automatically assumed that lighter-skinned persons are more intelligent than darker members of their groups, are more desirable associates, and are more deserving of senior professional roles than their darker-skinned cohorts. Even today, in competition with darker-skinned Jamaicans, lighter-skinned individuals are more likely to secure a job for which they possess the same credentials.

Often, colourism deniers are among the first to mention examples of successful, black-skinned individuals as evidence that colourism doesn’t exist, though such deniers may acknowledge Jamaica’s so-called “classism” while choosing never to explore its racist roots and colourism offspring.

Some deniers are unwilling to accept that the national motto is aspirational and not descriptive, and that Jamaica is a majority black country with substantial skin colour derived inequity that benefits lighter-skinned people, including making such women choose partners with beneficial incomes and statuses such as Gayle and his type.

jcdavisiq2@yahoo.com