Melville Cooke
THE FIGURATIVE chains of mental slavery do not obviously bind and drag as did the literal ones before 1834. Sometimes they glitter in the jewellery store, there are different patterns bouncing on the chests of the insufficient in the nightclubs and sometimes the links form bumper-to-bumper traffic, in a lengthy chain of unnecessary debt and social aspirations. And many times they tinkle merrily.
The purpose of the chains during slavery was to not only restrict slaves physically, but also to limit their thinking, to get them to conform. The tinkle and crackle of Black humour serves the same purpose which the clanking irons did less than 200 years ago.
INHERENTLY INFERIOR
I refer to Black humour not as the English define it, as something inherently inferior, substandard and even evil (as it does all things black - check it), but as the actual laughter and sources of humour among Black people.
It is often based on ridicule, on laughing at someone instead of laughing with them, and not in a friendly, harmless way. This scornful laughter in turn affects the behaviour of those who are the subjects of the Black humour and who are suspect to its whittling power and the objective of conforming behaviour or a feeling of inferiority is achieved.
A FOOL?
Think about how many times you have called another Black person a fool, more likely than not behind their back, followed with a snide smile or a caustic chuckle. Think of how many times another Black person has called you a fool or, more likely, given you the sniff, shake of the head and the smile which adds up to the same thing.
Yet we do not do the same thing with the fairer of skin among us.
We are very quick to ridicule each other, to presume a lack of intelligence and dismiss another Black person as a fool - and let us not forget that the presumption of a lack of intelligence of Blacks was one of the tenets of slavery.
One of my more recent experiences with the 'fool fool' phenomenon came at a four-way intersection in Havendale, St. Andrew. I was going down a gentle slope and came to a stop sign. The person coming to the intersection on my left, which did not have a stop sign, came to a halt. I looked at the female driver who had the right of way but was imagining a stop sign, she looked at me, blew her horn, turned to the person in the passenger seat, flashed her long, coloured, store-bought nails and said loudly "im fool eh?!!".
INFERIOR 'THREADS'
Then there is the matter of laughing at those whose possessions, whether it be a cellphone, clothes or car, fall below the current standard of 'bling' or are simply deemed to be inferior. Then if the person is susceptible to the ribbing, they try to 'step up in life', falling prey to the rabid materialism which has brought 'bling' into the dictionary.
It is painful to see how many persons, especially those in low-level jobs in which they interact with the public, treat those who are not dressed up to the sixes, much less the nines. It may not come with laughter, but it is founded on the same ridicule, the same Black humour.
MOST OF US ARE SUSCEPTIBLE
Whoever first said 'sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me' may have had a extra-thick hide, but most of us are susceptible to the sprains, the breaks, the wounds of words and guffaws which are directed at us.
Who needs thumbscrews and whips to make a set of people conform when you have slashing laughter?
And let us not forget the way in which Black funny folk are remembered and their more serious counterparts forgotten. How many Black people remember (or have even heard of) Paul Robeson or know of Harry Belafonte's social activism? But they sure as heck can recall Richard Pryor and Sammy Davis Jnr.
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
