Stop colourism in the tourist trade

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I READ with awe an article written in The Sunday Gleaner on October 27 by University of Technology lecturer Beienetch Watson about colourism and the tourist industry.

We are living in modern times and the people in high places are crying out that they are unable to secure the services of good hotel workers locally. Mr Watson has dismissed this belief and countered it that many of the best workers have to seek employment out of our locality, where the subpar workers who come in as expatriates are from.

Why is this so? I am from the epicentre of the tourist trade in Lucea, midway between Negril and the tourism Mecca in Montego Bay. Most people who are young in my area are a part of the tourist trade because it is the most viable way to make a living. I have seen some of my friends seeking for better avenues to make a better life by migrating to the so-called greener pastures up North.

Some are disheartened by the lack of mobility in the system so they venture to other shores to seek for betterment. These guys and girls have the requisite charm, honesty, hard-working acumen to place them on a pedestal by their management teams but due to their skin colour, they will not venture upward in positions.

We need a much more adoring black-friendly system and stop the pussyfooting by the relevant persons to ensure that everybody get the type of remuneration deserved from their résumés.