When the Man in the Mirror is the Invisible Man
(Republished after CPL 2018 because not much has changed from 2014)
A MEDIA SHOULD show a people itself: what we were and
are; what we do; what we can become.
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| Some athletes, even with full-on talent, are made to feel inadequate though they fly their nation's flag proudly |
First world media stands in itself and takes
time to look outside. Third world media, even when looking inside, seems to be staring
from eyes outside of itself.
As a regional people we are so immature:
culturally infantile, like babes always looking up at the “big people.” We either
do what the “big people” tell us, ape what we see them do, or throw
energy-draining tantrums at what we are allowed to throw tantrums at – namely,
ourselves.
I’ve come up with a name for this: We-don’t-know-what-we-for Complex.
This is a kind of disease a
competent Media would make up its mind to attempt to cure. Except, I’ve heard
it said so many times here, “Our job is not to effect change, it’s just to
report the truth.” Ah yes ... the truth. Subjective at best; and from whose
eyes are you seeing the so-called truth?
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Some creatures hide in colour.
Some colours just get hidden.
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Take the recently wrapped up Caribbean Premier League cricket tournament.
As with every international sporting event, marketing and advertising was an integral
part. Actually, in this Branded Media age, marketing and advertising have
become more like driving forces than happy hangers- on.
Rocker Jim Morrison declared,
“Whoever
controls the media controls the mind.”
You get it. Or maybe ya don't.
Locally, a sad trend that has existed
for forever is a boldfaced “whitewash” of dark-hued women by marketing and advertising.
The CPL danced to that tune as well. Literally. Anyone with an eye for talent
could easily ascertain that the dancer-girls (cheerleaders my h-eye-nie) for the tournament were mostly selected,
not for skill, ability, training, expertise, but for what folk in the region
call “high-colour.”
Left out the dark again
Some of them did not even have timing;
to the extent that a Caucasian, foreign cricket announcer commented, “Not quite
there yet, but they’re trying.” Which is embarrassing on so many levels; especially
for Trinidad and Tobago: the rhythm capital of the Caribbean.
Caribbean people can boast of
beautiful brown skin in every worthy imaginable shade, from ebony to toffee-cream. Yet, the people
responsible for choosing the dancers decided brown was wrong, light was right.
Let us imagine if the same selection principle was applied to players of the
game itself, and all cricketers falling below the advertising accepted
“sapodilla brown” were left out. Bye-bye Gayle, both Bravo brothers, Pollard, Badree,
Sammy, Cottrell, Russell, Taylor, Smith, even a couple of the visiting Asian
players and a set of others.
Some of them might have got in from
the onset, but after heavy sun exposure and brown skin’s propensity to tan
three shades darker at a time, they’d have to be kicked off the team.
Now let’s apply the same to spectators
themselves. Not too much darkness in the stands, please. So there’d be a colour
chart at the gates, and anyone not matching the accepted lighter shades would
be cut off: “Go home and hide yuhself, but watch on TV so you can see the
product promotions.”
Can you spell a-p-a-r-t-h-e-i-d? Jim
Crow anyone? Blatant colour bigotry spurred by the largely sexist, largely classist,
neo-colonial Branded Media – exposing how un-emancipated we are and how far
from true independence.
A lighter shade of impale
It was the talent of West Indian
cricketing icons that earned the region a place of respect at the table, at a
time when people of colour had to fight for Civil Rights. It should be the
talent, not the skin colour, of anyone
that earns them a rightful place in a field of ability. Not so?
There are still faction in the
Caribbean that dare to make darker skin colour a problem. Worse, these faction
condition us all to feel the same, making us not want to see ourselves because
we think ourselves ugly since someone – most likely someone who does not look
like us – has told us so.
This is not just about dancers. This
is about identity and Self. Such bigotry, insidiously insisted or openly enforced,
turns us self-deprecating, self-marginalising, self-stifling and self-slaying
in the long-run. Anyone who would argue that needs to read Ralph Ellison's book , Invisible Man.
People wonder why West Indian
cricketers have fallen so far from former glory. Maybe it has something to do
all that self-undoing stuff ... that dangerously
works to manifest attrition in the spirit and will of individuals and a people
as a whole.
Our very own Media plays the tune of
oppression. Whether played loudly or
softly, we dance. We dance.
Come Good
