Public Comments: Writing against the epistemological colonization of Jamaica by Homo-Activists

by Coddy Burru

The following is a critique of an article by Thomas Glave titled "Towards a Nobility of the Imagination: Jamaica's Shame" published in Small Axe, 7 March 2000 pp122-126. Glave's article marks a growing trend by gay and lesbian activists of trying to shape public opinion in and of Jamaica. My critique recognizes the epistemological dangerousness of this trend and is an act of critical counter insurgency. It is a modification of a paper I wrote in Grad School.

Thomas Glave's defence of his homosexual compatriots in Jamaica deploys the same name calling, sweeping generalisations and non sequiturs he deplores when deployed against his comrades. Therefore, this writer feels no obligation to be civil towards him. According to Glave, Jamaicans are ignoble, cowardly, brutish, hypocritical, smug, lacking in compassion and shallow in reasoning. Hypocritically, he purports to advocate tolerance, charity and consideration towards his group, even as he stereotypes Jamaicans as subhuman: "In truth, we, as a society barely know what the word 'humanity' means. For in failing to love and support our fellow humans who are gay and lesbian, we are hardly human." (123) If he believes this to be true, his call for compassion and love is a lost cause. After all, one cannot hope to persuade brutes to act like humans. Furthermore, Glave's central argument is manifestly shallow and invalid: Because one does not support his chosen lifestyle one somehow becomes inhuman?


Instead of his whining, sententious, fake so-called 'humanist' argument that everyone should love everyone, homosexuals included; he might do better to argue their right to be different. Instead, he declares: "We are everywhere: like you" (124). So what? Anyone with any modicum of intelligence knows that homosexuality has long existed. Does that somehow legitimise and normalise it? Many Jamaicans find sexual congress between members of the same sex reprehensible. This is our right. We are under no obligation to love homosexuals, whether indigenous or expatriate. Those who choose to do so, that is their prerogative. Even the late Rex Nettleford, an acknowledged homosexual and former Vice-Chancellor at The University of the West Indies regarded the recently hyped homosexual debate as a waste of time. He said: "A great many productive people throughout the world are supposed to have that (homosexual) preference. What is the big thing? The wasting of time on the discussion is what will deflect us from (other important issues)..."[1] Contrary to what Mr Glave thinks, for most Jamaicans, embracing homosexuals and lesbians is not among the "critical matters" (123) facing the nation.


Like every one else, homosexuals have a right to live their lives according to their choices, so long as they don't try to foist their lifestyles on others. Homosexuals are indeed subjected to some vigilantism in Jamaica. But no more so than paedophiles, rapists, thieves and others who transgress 'social norms'. Glave is right when he suggests that Jamaica has a problem of endemic violence bequeathed by a legacy of slavery. However, Jamaica needs to address its social problems in their entirety. Mr Glave's special pleading for homosexuals will get him or Jamaica nowhere. Betty Ann Blaine has rightly observed: "Any writer who wants to examine honestly and objectively anti-gay violence in Jamaica, must place that discussion within the broader context of the staggering levels of violence that exist ... [W]ithin the context of this ... culture of violence, no particular group is immune."[2] Jamaica has to relearn the value of all life. It also has more pressing concerns of combating poverty and its offshoots such as human trafficking, child exploitation, and growing scourges of sex-tourism in general and "homo-tourism" in particular. What Glave fails to do, despite his superficial invocation of Slavery, is to contextualise his analysis within the plantation framework of economic and sexual exploitation, denial of fatherhood rights, and the concomitant so-called black male irresponsibility. He has not engaged how those factors may have impacted attitudes towards homosexuals, as well as their performance of so-called "alternative masculinities." As a poor substitute for intellectually rigorous analysis, Glave offers a maudlin plea: "With such a brutal past ... we should be the noblest people in the world." (123) Glave needs to do much better than invoking Slavery and the mantra of black victimhood and the fear these can instil. His words totally fail to convince and ring hollow: "we are quickly on our way to becoming worse off than what many have consistently attempted to make us." (123) Others have constructed Jamaicans in particular uncomplimentary ways and Glave cynically tries to manipulate these images towards his ends.


Mr Glave and his local and overseas homo-activist friends utilise pieces like this to stir up sensationalist fervour and to promote the exaggerated claim that the average "heterosexist" Jamaican is just waiting for the opportunity to murder some hapless 'battybwoy': " 'We shoulda kill you the first chance we did get,' they would say. Shot, stabbed, stoned. Boom bye-bye." (123) The truth is not as simple as this. There is no genocidal design against homosexuals. But Glave would have the overseas audiences he melodramatically panders to believe this: Jamaicans, he claims, are possessed of "a willingness to persecute and destroy...gay[s] and lesbian[s] ...." (123) Betty Ann Blaine has commented on a malicious article published by Times Magazine, Wednesday April 12, 2006 which declared Jamaica "The Most Homophobic place on Earth" in the following manner: "the fact that an individual could openly and callously use one broad brush to tarnish an entire nation of people is reprehensible at best."[3] This statement is also applicable to Glave and some of those who support his project.

What Mr Glave neglects to note is that a significant number of murders of homosexuals in Jamaica are reprisal against economically well-off homosexuals by the men they have exploited. For instance, the much publicised murder of Brian Williamson, a late homo-activist (compatriot of Glave) turned out to be a crack addict 'friend' of Williamson who regularly 'visited' him for money. Also, a couple years ago Ambassador King was found with his throat slit while four other men were found asleep on beds in the house and the murderer escaped. There were no signs of breaking and entering (of the house at least). Also, a collection of homosexual pornographic tapes involving King, prominent members of Jamaican society (including medical doctors, politicians and even a dance-hall deejay) and exploited men and children were found. Figure it out Mr Glave. Or must we spell it out again for you, Sir? Blaine rightly notes that "many of the murders of gays that have been reported in the press have been classified as crimes of passion committed by other gays who are known to the victims. Why has the writer disregarded that type of evidence?"[4] The trial and conviction of Mr. Pusey for Ambassador King's murder lends support to Blaine's argument. Mr. Glave, you claim on behalf of the homosexual community that "we are none of the terrible things many would have us be" (123). This is not quite true. Half the story has never been told, Mr Glave. There is something quite rotten in upper middle class Jamaica. And, as Bob Marley said: "If night should turn to day a lot people would run away."[5]

In a newspaper article titled "Boys for hire and desire"[6] Betty Ann Blaine documents the disturbing sexual exploitation of Jamaican children generally and the sodomy of vulnerable boys especially. She notes that "the issue of the sodomy of our boys is something that many people know about, particularly people from the upper echelons of the society, but choose to cover up." But Mr. Glave advances a spurious claim of special nobility in gays who participate in the Jamaican economy and society: "We process your loans and bank accounts and teach your children ... And in this there is a kind of nobility ..." (124) The fact of the matter is that gays are not a special noble breed. Like other humans, they are capable of both ignoble and noble deeds. Who is he trying to fool with his mythification?

Glave would have us believe that gays in Jamaica are under constant threat of being mobbed and gunned down. Overseas agitators with an agenda of discrediting Jamaicans to advance their cause make reference to "rampant violence against gays"[7] in Jamaica. What about the violence perpetrated by them against our children? Most homosexuals who get chastised or killed in Jamaica are not innocent, slaughtered lambs. The instances cited above and myriad other cases suggest otherwise. Many of them are sexual reprobates and predators who become victims of their own bedfellows. One recalls Cliff Lashley, the UWI lecturer, who was slain by his homosexual lover. Also, there was the case of the fake soothsayer of a TV personality, Safa, who suffered a similar fate. What about the former track and field coach of Kingston College High School who was fired after years of sodomising his charges? What about the once famous former sports presenter who tried to molest a track and field athlete from Jamaica College at the Penn Relays? What about other prominent members of Jamaican society, some of whom are married, who are known to prey on hapless street children? What about the mentally challenged boy whom a "volunteer from some other country fondled and kissed ... and proceeded to place his penis in the little boy's rectum"[8]? What words about "Nobility of the Imagination" do you have for him and his parents, Mr. Glave? You are so full of it!

Glave unctuously appeals for special treatment for gays and lesbians by invoking Bob Marley and God! If Glave were truly attuned to Jamaican culture as he pretends to be, he'd recall that Bob Marley sang: "Man to man is so unjust, yah don't know who to trust."[9] Those who are in tune know that Bob was "throwing words" against homosexuality and those who tried to assassinate him. Homosexuality is against the tenets of Rastafarianism and Christianity. But Mr Glave is willing to affirm whatever is convenient to advance his specious arguments: "Our greatest prophet singer admonished us: we must free ourselves from mental slavery." (125) Glave has elsewhere mocked Marley's Rastafarian faith by dubbing himself a Jamaican "Rasta Battyman."[10] But now he wants to hug up Bob Marley's lyrics? He reminds me of those Danish cartoonists who disrespected the Islamic faith with derogatory images and then expressed surprise when the Muslim community responded in righteous indignation. Glave's gesture also recalls the boorish insensitivity of American soldiers during the Abu Grabe prison scandal. One cannot claim to be promoting tolerance by disrespecting others' beliefs.

Mr Glave needs to know that Jamaicans who are aware of the real situation will not be taken in by his "drama queen" histrionics. We will not be bullied. Nor will we be swayed by fake emotionalism. UWI's urban anthropologist, Herbert Gayle, offers a useful perspective: "Jamaica has to be a target because you want the culture that is most visible on this issue to bow ... if you can get Jamaica to accept something, you have not (simply) made a dent, you have literally closed a chasm. And that is what it is all about; it is not primarily about so many people being mistreated, because it is not true."[11] Glave and other local and overseas homo-activists need to know that the average Jamaican refuses to be used to further their perverse cause. Any change that takes place in Jamaica will be determined by its people of their own volition within the national context. Not by a wolf in sheep's clothing oxymoronically self-styled as a Jamaican Rasta battyman. We will not be controlled by remote. We naw bow to spiritual bankruptcy and decadence neither! Glave and his compatriots need to tek wey demself!

Endnotes

[1] Rex Nettleford, quoted by Peter Williams, "The Gay Debate" The Jamaica Observer, December 5, 2004 www.jamaicaobserver.com

[2] Betty Ann Blaine, "Jamaica the worst case on earth" The Jamaica Observer, May 02, 2006. www.jamaicaobserver.com

[3] Blaine, "Jamaica the worst case on earth"

[4] Blaine, "Jamaica the worst case on earth"

[5] Bob Marley, "Who the Cap Fit"

[6] Blaine, "Boys for hire and desire" The Jamaica Observer, March 28, 2006

[7] Tim Padgett quoted Times Magazine, April 12, 2006

[8] Blaine, "Boys for hire and desire"

[9] Bob Marley, "Who the Cap Fit"

[10] Thomas Glave, quoted by Tanya Batson-Savage, "Thomas Glave, a man in between" Jamaica Gleaner, February 12, 2006 www.jamaica-gleaner.com

[11] Quoted by Peter Williams in "The Gay Debate"