I refer to the articles published in The Sunday Gleaner, Nove-mber 22, on skin bleaching. I have done community research and audio-visual documentation on this subject and it is very alarming to note that this indicator of the internalisation of racism by post-colonised people is not more systematically addressed by our institutions of socialisation and social reform.

In the same way that taking drugs is regarded as a mental-health problem and treated as such in rehabilitation efforts, we need to acknowledge that the practice of bleaching is a manifestation of psychic fracturing, resulting from centuries of colonialism, institutionalised racism and entrenched systems of social stratification.

In Jamaica, these interlocking systems of oppression have established standards of beauty and high social status in the idiom of 'browning.'

When dominated classes of people (such as those bleaching their skins and straightening their hair to achieve the preferred notion of social self-representation) perform this discourse as if it were their own, without realising that they are harming themselves in the process, we have a serious problem. This is often referred to as the Willie Lynch syndrome, organised in strategies of divide and rule.

identity issues

If we are to tackle our fundamental development crisis, we have to address the troubling identity issues that are suggested by the damaging bleaching practice. These anomalies were eloquently raised by Marcus Garvey to the horror of those who wished to preserve the status quo.

The relevance of our first National Hero's advocacy for African self-love and self-confidence is more relevant than ever and should be streamed into all avenues of communication offered by government agencies, schools, churches, NGOs, media etc., before we erase our selves out of existence.

I am, etc..

DR IMANI M. TAFARI-AMA

i.tafariama@gmail.com

Bull Bay PO

St Andrew