Dr Carolyn Cooper's opening statement (The Sunday Gleaner, Feb 22,) captures the essence of her thesis that prejudice is at the heart of the public outcry against Rampin' Shop and the likes in public spaces. In Dr Cooper's learned view, "the hostility ... has more to do with our perception of raw-chaw Jamaican language ... ." In keeping with her "they are prejudiced against raw-chaw Jamaicanese" thesis, Cooper goes on to analyse and explain why Esther Tyson and others are misguided, prejudiced and out of order, and why she, the learned academic, supports and applauds Rampin' Shop's lyrics. So, if you never understood that the discourse is about our problematic perception of raw-chaw Jamaicanese, Dr Cooper has cleared up dat deh misconception.
DECEPTIVE STRAWMAN
Not so fast. Few thinking Jamaicans are fooled by Docta C's learned argument; they see it for what it is: It is a strawman; a three-card distraction; a deft piece of anancyism. It is nothing more than a brazen deceptive attempt to draw Jamaicans into her non-starter argument and away from the immensely important public conversation about lewdness in public spaces, including slackness in the media, pornography on public transportation, and crude, lewd, vulgar noises that pollute entire communities day and night.
I especially know about the pollution of entire communities as my own family has suffered under it for years now. The loud, vibrating slackness, crassness, ugliness and lewdness that Dr Cooper defends, penetrates into my family's inner-city home anytime the sound system operators decide to play their sounds. They decide to do it a lot, sometimes several times each week, sometimes from early afternoon until early the next morning. Calls to the police station, visits to the dance promoters and sound system operators, discussions with pastors and other community leaders, even making a representation to the area don have changed nothing.
Harmed by lewdness
My 89-year-old grandfather has gone into total and complete silence as tears of frustration roll down his face because he is powerless to protect his Christian family from the shockingly lewd Rampin' Shop and the likes penetrating his home until broad daylight. He is outraged that he cannot sleep nor can he protect his 10-year-old great granddaughter from the slackness. As to the 10-year-old (my niece), she repeatedly counts one, two, three; one, one, two, three, one two, three to try to block it out, but she is never successful. I worry that the slackness noise prevents her from studying for her GSAT.
People everywhere are harmed by the lewdness in public spaces. They feel disgusted and frustrated about why it's allowed. They want it to stop polluting everywhere. So, my advice to Dr Cooper is, if she wants to jump into the dancehall space and prance around, she has to put her great learning to good use and do something good for the society. She should think about how to end the lewd pollution everywhere. She should research pon dat, construct the arguments aroun' dat, and write 'bout dat!
I am, etc.,
KUWANDA DAWKINS
Kingston 11