By Makhulu

The racism displayed by JLP stalwarts Everald Warmington and Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn was disturbing, to say the least.

It demonstrated that Jamaica cannot get past divisiveness and that political parties are still playing the race card.

Mark Golding is a Jamaican. He was born and raised in Jamaica and forged his career here. He raised his family in Jamaica yet Warmington and Cuthbert-Flynn honed in on his colour.

Despicable!

Many have said US President-elect Donald Trump is a racist. If he had uttered what the senior JLP members on a public platform said, blacks would be incandescent with rage.

The woke crowd would call for him to be hung, drawn and quartered. It would be said that he is unfit to hold public office. In Jamaica, Warmington and Cuthbert-Flyn were not condemned for their comments. Both civil society and the JLP leadership had nothing to say.

When it comes to racism, one can’t be a hypocrite. We can clearly see that black people can be racist when it suits them.

Mark Golding is gaining traction and is making progress. The PNP is gathering momentum. This may have caused anxiety, leading to the JLP parliamentarians playing the race card, calling on the majority of Jamaicans to shun Golding as “a white man who represents the colonial past”.

It is unfortunate that they don’t view Golding as a fellow-Jamaican but only see his colour and what they deem it represents. What they said was vicious and very nasty and they both got a pass.

Here’s what Everald Warmington said on a political platform: “We are the descendants of the slaves. We don’t want the descendants of the slave masters to come rule us again. In 1838 we threw the chains off and now we must go back into chains? We don’t want it. What we need to do is put him [Golding] back on the banana boat and send him back to England.”

At the JLP Annual Conference last Sunday, MP for St Andrew West Rural, Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn bellowed: “Our leader is strong, our leader is active, our leader is about serving your interest. But there’s another man called Mark British and he is a man who believes in holding chains around the necks of black people. We have to say no to the man that is leading the PNP who love to style black people and call them little boy and little lady.” 

Incendiary stuff.

Some say the same was said about former Prime Minister Edward Seaga and that his skin colour was used against him. Former Prime Minister PJ Patterson even went so far  as to say, “Black man time now.” 

It doesn’t make it right and racism cannot be justified this way.

You can’t shout racism when it is perpetrated at you but turn a blind eye and a deaf ear when your people are subjecting other people to racism. 

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Despite claims of racism. Trump won the US Presidential election with voters across different ethnic groupings. The stigma of racism didn’t upend his campaign despite saying some controversial things which many considered racist.

Trump has said: “The overwhelming amount of violent crime in our cities is committed by blacks and Hispanics.”

He has declared Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries”. 

“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some I assume are good people,” said Trump in 2016 about Mexico sending criminals to the border. 

In his 1991 book, ‘Trumped!’, John O’Donnell quoted Trump as allegedly saying: “I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and at Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money. I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys wearing yarmulkes…Those are the only kind of people I want counting my money. Nobody else… Besides that, I’ve got to tell you something else. I think that the guys are lazy. And it’s probably not their fault because laziness is a trait in blacks.” 

Donald Trump has got into trouble for these remarks and liberals have held him to account. He has not said anything as outrageous as both Cuthbert-Fylnn and Warmington spewed.

If he did, legacy media would have a meltdown and the likes of Al Sharpton, Abby Phillip, Joy Reid and Don Lemon would make their displeasure known to the world.

Racism is racism. It is not the preserve of any particular colour. 

Jamaica should not go down that road. Out of many, one people.