Examining Race in Jamaica: How Racial Category and Skin Color Structure Social Inequality

Kelly, Monique D. A.

doi:10.1007/s12552-020-09287-z

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…And more recently, they have also started to quantify the influence of race on social inequality. Monique Kelly (2020), for instance, has shown that dark-skinned Jamaicans have fewer years of education and less wealth than non-Black and lighter-skinned Jamaicans. But like Caribbean historians, these scholars too have not explored in detail everyday racialized practices.…”

Section: New Westmentioning

confidence: 99%

Out of Place

Altink

2021

New West Indian Guide

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Because hotels are a microcosm of society, they offer a useful case study to explore social inequalities, including racial divisions. This article examines the experiences of African-Jamaican hotel workers and guests from independence in 1962 till the present to demonstrate the salience of Jamaica’s race and color relations. It argues that hotel workers and guests at times challenged the racialized practices that they experienced but more often refrained from doing so because of their socialization into a long-standing ethos of “Black is nuh good” and exposure to a nationalist ideology that projected a vision of racial harmony. The article also shows that through their responses to claims of racial discrimination in hotels, a variety of stakeholders, including tourist organizations, failed to challenge the island’s racial hierarchy which placed Whites on top, light-skinned Jamaicans in the middle, and dark-skinned Jamaicans at the bottom.

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Section: New Westmentioning

confidence: 99%

Out of Place

Altink

2021

New West Indian Guide

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“…These effects are felt by descendants of all racial actors (i.e. European, African), but since nearly 92% of Jamaicans self-identify as black or black-mixed (Kelly, 2020), the focus here is on those of African ancestry.…”

Section: Key Psychological Needs For Jamaicamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Like the inequity that existed during the period of enslavement, there is still great financial inequity among Jamaicans. For instance, 60% of Jamaica's wealth is controlled by just 10% of the population (Kelly, 2020). The nature of racial inequity in the Jamaican society has transitioned over time.…”

Section: Key Psychological Needs For Jamaicamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The nature of racial inequity in the Jamaican society has transitioned over time. The original plantation system produced a structure which equated whiteness with power and blackness with servitude (Patterson, 1969), and over the centuries the intermingling of the races and the emergence of "mixedraces" led to a system where colour determined privileges to which a person was entitled (Kelly, 2020). In present-day Jamaica, although official entitlements based on racial composition may no longer exist, many perceive that unofficial privileges exist for persons with a lighter skin tone (Charles, 2010).…”

Section: Key Psychological Needs For Jamaicamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although presented above as separate issues, the complicated nature of these social systems means that the commingling of these financial-and racial/colourbased issues has produced Jamaica's complex class system which facilitates social mobility. For instance, Kelly (2020) found that participants' self-identified skin colour and their racial categorisation each predicted their access to household amenities (e.g. refrigerator, cars, indoor plumbing) and their years of schooling, with those of a darker hue having less of each type of commodity.…”

Section: Key Psychological Needs For Jamaicamentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Examination of the Landscape of Psychology in Jamaica

Mason

Morgan²

2021

International and Cultural Psychology

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The history of psychology in the Caribbean, including Jamaica, is relatively new when compared to other geographical regions. The earliest evidence of a psychological examination of Jamaica or Jamaicans is the personality analysis done by an English social psychologist who in the late 1940s worked on the West Indian Social Survey (Rey, 1953). As it relates to psychological practice, starting from the 1960s the Government's health ministry employed clinical psychologists to work within their psychiatric services.From these beginnings the field of psychology in Jamaica has experienced significant growth especially in the last two decades. Currently, we have over 100 psychologists from a range of subfields and approximately 15 degree programmes. It therefore appears that psychological resources in Jamaica are growing and there is great promise for the future. But the assessment of the state of psychology should be measured by whether the level of resources matches the needs of the country. To complete that assessment, one would therefore need to identify what psychological needs exist. So, what is Jamaica all about?"We likkle but we tallawah!". This popular Jamaican saying can be translated as "we are physically small, but we are big in stature" and is the way some people describe the country. For many, this small island (just 146 miles long) is punching way above its weight class in terms of its worldwide popularity. With a population of less than 2.8 million (Statistical Institute of Jamaica, 2019), Jamaica has produced personalities who have had significant worldwide impact such as Marcus

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Census Racial Metadata: Categories Used for Different Racial Groups Across Countries and Time

Cheng

Twidale

2022

Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Tech

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A national census enables a government to comprehend its population. Questions concerning race and ethnicity are often included in census forms. We examined the racial category options provided in 35 countries' historical census forms over multiple decadal censuses. Analysis of these metadata options can help in understanding the way that official measures of race are socially constructed and reconstructed over place and time according to changing circumstances.

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Examining Race in Jamaica: How Racial Category and Skin Color Structure Social Inequality

Cited by 16 publications

References 57 publications

Out of Place

Out of Place

An Examination of the Landscape of Psychology in Jamaica

Census Racial Metadata: Categories Used for Different Racial Groups Across Countries and Time

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