Jamaica; that little dot of an island that everybody either loves endlessly or loves to hate. Our undeniably beautiful island is widely known for its music and party scenes, world leading athletes and saucy attitudes. A country of laidback folks with simplicity as our motto; this simplicity sloganized and emblazoned on t-shirts: Jamaica No Problem. But why is that the only image that gets painted? Are we not a nation of intellectuals as well?
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am all for the idea of Jamaica being everybody’s idea of paradise, (because most days it truly is) and I am no stranger to the party scene, but there is so much more to us than never missing a party. It wasn’t until I left home for college that this view became worrying. My suitemates loved when I played the radio stations from home, because the only other time they would hear reggae or dancehall would be at parties. They gushed over pictures I had from the beach or from parties, marveling at how inviting the sun seemed and how fun the parties looked. It was a great feeling to see people so intrigued by us. A few months later, I was having a conversation with one of my suitemates about how (horrendously) the government was handling the Riverton fire and the debacle with the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), where after a heated rant about the whole thing, she looked at me in shock and said “I didn’t expect you to be so aware of your government and stuff.” Puzzled, I asked why only to have my eyes nearly roll out of their sockets when she said “I thought you were just the island-party girl.”
Conversations with other sufferers of chronic tunnel vision, who expressed similar shock or were unduly impressed by things I knew or what I chose to talk about, almost became the norm. I still cringe when I remember, getting a couple wows when my classmates saw that I wasn’t totally unfamiliar with how the US government worked. I almost snapped when one daring young lady said “Are you sure you’re Jamaican? You know a lot about American music.” A friend of mine -who is also Jamaican- and I spent hours dishing out actual history and geography lessons to people whose only comment was “You guys know so much! Where did you learn all that?” We had to help them pick their jaws from the floor when we incredulously told them “At school.” I found myself bitterly saying “I know” far too much to people who took it upon themselves to teach me about things they assumed I wouldn’t know – “Oh... well I didn’t expect you to know about that…”
As thrilling as it is to be so impressive to my new peers for really just being myself, I can’t help but be a little insulted that they make us out to be so simple and narrow-minded. This is by no means a sweeping generalization on any account, but by my examples, this mindset is clearly widespread. It’s a thing, people. The short and simple version of my suggestion is that maybe we can put down the gimmicks every now and then? There is true activism, wisdom and thoughtful conversation that gets lost among the flotsam and jetsam of memes and corny trending topics. It has long since been the coping mechanism of choice for Jamaicans to make light of a tough situation, but if we’re always joking, no one will listen when we’re ready to be taken seriously.