Patronising ghetto people

Colin Steer, Associate Editor - Opinion

A driver and a younger colleague travelling through an inner-city community about 10 o' clock one Sunday morning had just rounded a corner when they were confronted by a woman of ample proportions walking casually along the roadway, her flat slippers delivering a syncopated rhythm. The dark areola of her nipples were clearly visible through the flimsy, lacy top she was wearing and her shorts were, ah well ... very short.

In reflex shock reaction, the driver let go of the steering wheel and exclaimed, "Jesus!" He quickly recovered, however, and they continued the journey in silence.

Neither driver nor passenger was a stranger to life in the inner-city, yet the idea that a woman would emerge from her house "dressed" like that, let alone be seen walking on the road, was more than a bit of a shocker. But that was about 15 years ago. Today, such behaviour has become more commonplace.

Yet, despite this, it is far too easy for media reporting on the lives of inner-city people to be patronising in their generalisations as they comment with an open-mouthed wonder that suggests, "Gee whizz, they came from the ghetto and look how well they are doing!" or "Look how far they have reached, despite where they came from!" Or worse yet, "No better can be expected, they are ghetto people!"

One-dimensional depiction

This condescension ignores the wide tapestry that is to be found in Jamaica's inner-cities. We focus on the more obvious, ignoring the many other aspects of life. For, despite all the challenges, children from inner-city communities have performed well academically over many years to pass Common Entrance, GSAT, A' levels and university exams. Jamaica's professional landscape and places overseas to which our people have migrated have more than a scattering of medical doctors, lawyers, university academics, teachers and businessmen who grew up in the streets and lanes of western, central and eastern Kingston. They have come from Greenwich Farm, Trench Town, Jones Town, Whitefield Town, Allman Town, Waterhouse, Olympic Gardens and Seaview.

Some came under the influence of the church, some had families who valued education and some had relatives who could provide some financial help - but, more importantly, they also offered another way of looking at life rather than being consumed by the physical and social degradation around them. For them, their inner-city background is neither a trophy to be displayed nor a towel to be discarded. It is just a fact of life - in much the same way that the pit latrine or outhouse, if you prefer, was a reality for the rural poor.

Admittedly, in our class-conscious society, many would prefer that their roots not be advertised. As veteran journalist Barbara Gloudon once observed in a speech to a service club luncheon meeting some years ago, many people make it into Beverly Hills via Vineyard Town; that is, by education and professional advancement they move into a lower middle-class area and later into the more affluent neighbourhoods ... but "shhhhh, don't talk too loud, lest people find out".

Celebrating a distorted image

Today's so-called roots plays and some media personnel insist on depicting inner-city people as one-dimensional - loud, always quarrelling, sitting on the street pavement, plate of food or tooth brush in hand, etc. It is a celebration of a distorted image of ourselves as Jamaicans.

How easy it has become to dismiss criticisms of the loud, coarse behaviour as a pretentious hankering after bourgeois values. We invoke the name of Louise Bennett-Coverley to affirm some of the more crass offerings in local media as depicting 'the real Jamaica'. The claim is that Miss Lou affirmed poor people and our language and those who would walk in her footsteps are doing the same thing.

In reality, "they confound the radiance of the stars of heaven with the radiations that a duck's foot leaves in the mud", to borrow a quote from Victor Hugo in Les Miserables.

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