Black man + brown woman = perfect match?

LAST WEEK, I ended up in traffic behind a bus advertising one of our many universities. Incidentally, I provoked a lot of debate a few years ago because of a column I’d written with the headline, ‘University fi stone dog’. I reported then that there were 48 “registered institutions and training units” doing business in the country, according to the University Council of Jamaica.

This didn’t include offshore and online universities that hadn’t bothered to register. A wicked caller on a talk show mischievously observed at the time that we had more universities than basic schools. That was in 2009. There are now only 42: three closed; the registration of seven expired; five merged or were transferred; and nine new institutions were added.

The administrators and graduates of some of those registered institutions were annoyed with me because they didn’t seem to understand the meaning of the Jamaican phrase, ‘fi stone dog’. They apparently thought I meant that their institutions were subhuman. Actually, this cautionary expression signifies an excess of riches that results in wasteful behaviour, such as throwing valuable resources – instead of cheap stones – at dogs. It is true that I did imply that there were concerns about quality in all of that quantity.

NOTORIOUSLY UNFAITHFUL MEN

The university that was being advertised on the bus was not a fly-by-night operation. It has been long established. What caught my attention was the image that was being used to advertise the student body: a black man and a light-skinned woman. This pairing seems to be the standard in the advertising industry in Jamaica. Where are the black women and the brown men?

The couple on the back of the bus reminded me of a billboard put up by another university to welcome students. At one end, there was a couple: the usual black man and brown woman. At the other end, there was a lone black woman hugging a pile of books. What message was the institution sending?

That the brown woman would attract one of the few men on campus; and the man-less black woman would enjoy the consolation of her books? Perhaps that really was not such a bad trade-off for the black woman. Jamaican men of all stripes are notoriously unfaithful. Here today, gone tomorrow! For many women, education is a much better bet.

I called the university to find out about that image on the bus. I was relieved to be told by a member of staff that many students had complained about the dominance of light-skinned images in the institution’s advertising campaign. Responsive to the complaints, the administration decided to diversify the images.

LOOKING FOR BLACK WOMEN

The preference for light skin, especially for women, is a reflection of our history of racism. And things haven’t changed very much in the 21st century. Since charity and equity begin at home, I went looking for black women in the advertisements for various products, services and events in last Sunday’s Gleaner. I could hardly find any. Most of the women in the ads were brown and, occasionally, white. The very few black women showed up mostly in government ads. Not usually in those for the private sector.

There were some ads with group shots, for example, for a road race and for International Coastal Clean-Up Day. Black women were visible in these photos. But their individuality was erased. And, in any case, these ads were not typical. They were for events featuring people in real-life situations, not actors posing.

There were a couple of staged ads of families and, naturally, it was the same old story: brown women, black men and decidedly brown children. Black women don’t seem to be acceptable marriage partners for Jamaican advertisers. Neither are brown men. They rarely appear in family portraits.

There was one striking exception of a brown man breaking out of stereotype. He was either loading or unloading a washing machine or dryer with his right hand; and holding a baby quite precariously in his left hand. The juggling act suggested that he wasn’t quite comfortable with his dual role as caregiver and washerman. And there was no woman in the picture. This was not your typical nuclear family.

What does the advertising industry’s relentless policy of pairing black men with brown women tell us about the self-esteem of black men? Why do advertisers not show black men associating in public with women who look like themselves? It’s often another story in private. But I won’t go there.

SKIN BLEACHING

How do these media images affect young people? Do they influence assumptions about who looks good and who does not, who is desirable and who is not? How does the obvious preference for light skin in the media contribute to the epidemic of skin bleaching in Jamaica?

I have a simple solution to the problem of subtracting black women from the advertising equation. I don’t patronise businesses that fail to include black women in their ads. It’s basic maths. I’m not adding to the profits of any company that turns black women into a minus quantity.

Carolyn Cooper, PhD, is a specialist on culture and development. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and karokupa@gmail.com.