The fight for freedom remains the same
But Sikka Rymes also said that he would not pretend that people don’t bleach because of insecurities placed on them by the ‘system’.
“Maybe that’s the conversation we need to be having,” Rymes said. “Many people who bash skin bleachers in society are the very agents of the system who support colorism. Light-skinned girls are known to get more opportunities than darker skinned females. Even a simple thing like some of these corporations’ Instagram pages. When you look at the pictures they post, you will notice a mainly ‘browning’. But as usual, they won’t address that. They are more likely to draw attention to the ghetto youth who a bleach.”
Savage, who also practises skin-lightening, said he does it for the fashion but “I bleach my skin, not my mind”.
“If you’re black, you’re black, nothing can change that and that’s why supporting Black Lives
Matter is important,” he said, opining that the same barriers set up by society to keep black people away from achieving their true potential here, are the same barriers holding black people back in Jamaica.
He too expressed that Jamaicans realise classism and colorism are real issues but continue to sweep them under the rug. For controversial dancehall emcee Nuffy, it may be time Jamaica rolls back that rug.
“Most people who bleach is not because dem nuh love dem black skin. Dem nuh wah look like white people, a just circumstances, so make we talk bout dat instead. You can’t blame the bleachers because the stereotypes in Jamaica set against the black man. If yuh go certain places when you look certain way, people look pan yuh different from how dem woulda look pan a light-skinned, straight hair woman or man,” he said. “Black people just wah fit in more while. Dem watch how people treat other people and dem wah da treatment deh too so dem ‘fix up’ dem self. We fi look pan the situation weh exist inna Jamaica before we start lash out against artiste and other people weh a support black lives inna America. We know the things weh lead to bleaching so make
we fix dat first.”