The Silence and Salience of Race

Abstract

Drawing amongst others upon social media and NGO reports, this chapter first of all challenges the enduring myth of racial harmony by showing the salience of colour in contemporary Jamaica, while also highlighting that the power of race and colour has continued to be denied and minimised. It then moves on to explain why Jamaican society has remained stratified along race and colour lines from 1918 till the present, and why this fact has been largely silenced. And it finishes, by offering some suggestions how existing racial disparities can be reduced, ranging from measuring and publishing them to interventions in specific or across racial domains, such as education or the labour market.