THE EDITOR, Sir:
MAY I congratulate Melville Cooke on his very though-provoking columns? Finally a columnist that does not end up saying nothing and does not pontificate to death! Finally a columnist whose work is not a white line in the middle of the road! Finally a columnist who is not trying to run the world before he has even mastered his own craft!
Melville is far more interested in conveying his ideas than proving to the public how intelligent and learned he is. For that reason his writing is blessed with a wonderful simplicity in the way he conveys the profoundest of thoughts - the hallmark of good writing.
Melville, I just finished reading "The Crowning of the Browning." You will understand what I mean when I say, not until I came to Howard University in the heart of America, a few blocks from the White House, did I feel one hundred per cent at peace with my blackness. A great irony no doubt, but Howard University is a place where you are allowed to be a black person in peace, without qualifiers. No one is surprised by my dreadlocks, Nubian knots, twinkies or the absence of a perm, unlike my beloved island home where children are not allowed to wear braids in their hair and some corporate entities will not put you at their front desk unless the hair is appropriately straightened.
The pain that black people in general, and black women in particular, are subjected to every day of our lives in our own country is quite unthinkable. And still we wonder why we have a violent and desperate society, why women are bleaching themselves to death. Black Skins, White Masks. The Problem is, Melville, I couldn't even talk too loud because there was always someone waiting to slap my arm, to tell me I have a chip on my shoulder, that something is wrong with me and nothing is wrong with institutionalised, officially sanctioned racism, discrimination and marginalisation of black Jamaicans in their own country.
Please understand that I am grateful to you for conveying my thoughts in such a beautiful way. Thank you for making Miss Jamaica, Miss Universe and Miss World look deservedly stupid in a way that I could never have, and like I have never seen. Thanks for opening the dialogue. You make me think, you make me laugh and you make me cry, like a good writer should.
I am etc.
Dr. GRACE VIRTUE
GVirtue@usa.net
Silver Spring, Maryland
Via Go-Jamaica
