May 12, 2009

Jamaica: Actually, the Music is Only a Reflection of the Beatings and Murders

Top-down hatred: Jamaican
Prime Minister Bruce Golding
scoffs at anti-gay murder.

Expressions in Words, on the Jamaica Boycott:

Jamaica has long been known as a homophobic society - though granted we don’t have a poster at our international airports! More publicly, it is reflected in the music. Comparable to the spate of ‘daggering’ songs, local dancehall kings and queens vie for who can best describe with what should be done to homosexuals, often times in the most graphic of ways.

Perhaps the hate music is the most visible manifestation, but only to those who pay little if any attention to the actual beatings and murders that inspire the “music” — which in turn, inspires more beatings and murders.

Interestingly JFLAG, the Jamaican Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, is against the ban by their affiliate organization, going as far to say ‘Jamaica’s deeply ingrained antipathy towards homosexuality and homosexuals is a social phenomenon that will not be undone by boycott campaigns or government dictate’. They go on to state that the ban should be discontinued ‘because of the possible repercussions of increased homophobic violence against our already besieged community’ …’in fact, members of our own community could be disproportionately affected by a worsened economic situation brought about by a tourist ban.”

Which is a perfectly understandable position, except for the fact that nothing else has worked — and it is is literal suicide for openly gay foreigners to travel to Jamiaca.

You know, civil rights in the U.S. (including the still-elusive right not to be beaten to death just because one is gay) have never come by way of the victims being nice and hoping that their oppressors will evolve and see the light all on their own accord. Minority protections have had to be forced on an unwilling and stubbornly bigoted majority, by way of the court system, or (as some may recall) a Civil War whose total dead matches the total number of Americans killed in all other wars combined.

Advertised as ‘rum dumps’, gay advocates have organized two such events where they have dumped Myers Rum and Red Stripe Beer as a part of their efforts to boycott Jamaican products.

Personally, I think the rum dumps are as pointless as the French wine dumps at the height of the “Freedom Fries” idiocy of the Bush era. If you’ve already got Jamaican rum sitting around, drink the stuff — otherwise, you’re only pouring your own hard-earned money in the gutter. Just don’t buy any more.

Tolerance doesn’t seem to be the password for either side.

Uh-huh, and we’re supposed to be tolerating what, exactly? The beatings? “Music” that inspires murder? The murders themselves?

And while we’re “tolerating” the violence, and what passes for Jamaican “law enforcement” that not only turns a blind eye but actively encourages (and often participates in) that violence, what does anyone — including JFLAG — suggest be done to stop the madness?

I’m all ears, really. But at the same time, I know that pacifism — and passivism — hasn’t worked so far.

I also know that it took a hit to the pocketbook to stir another Caribbean hotbed of homobigotry from its arrogant slumber: the Bahamas.

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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