THE EDITOR, Sir:

I certainly don't have all the answers to the issues of reparations, but to the writer who asks 'What happens if you are quarter white, black, Chinese or Indian?', I respond that in the colonial relationship it is the so-called dominant culture (the European) which defines the relationship and supposedly the consequent liability.

Whites traditionally define others who are only one per cent non-white, but for all intents and purposes apparently white (from 51 per cent to 99 per cent), as non-white, as somewhat not worthy of equality and should therefore accept the resultant folly of this erroneous system of classification.

History has always exacted a severe penalty on civilisations and dominant cultural groups for repeating themselves and for perpetuating follies, and reparation appears to be one such summary penalty, although applying it effectively is quite a quandary.

I am, etc.,

BERT RAMSAY

bert@cwjamaica.com

Jonesboro, Georgia, U.S.A.

Via Go-Jamaica