You Don’t Look Jamaican…
“Oh wow, you’re from Jamaica? You don’t look Jamaican.”
Pause, what does a Jamaican look like? Or “Can you speak Jamaican? Let me hear.” I wasn’t aware that we spoke a different language. I guess when people are ignorant to other cultures and can only rely on televisions representation there is bound to be some form of stereotype. There are plenty of stereotypes about Jamaicans but here are the ones that I have experienced time and time again.
“You smoke?”
All Jamaicans smoke weed – honestly the weed smokers are the minority in Jamaica, marijuana is illegal in Jamaica, and though its said that the best weed comes from Jamaica, not every Jamaican has had an encounter with the drug.
“Aww man you’re from Jamaica? I ain’t messin’ with you, ya’ll females are craaazzzzy.”
Jamaican women are crazy – women as a whole can be irrational sometimes, but I guess if you mix the irrationality and the accent together then it can be a bit scary.
“Speak in Jamaican let me hear.”
Jamaicans don’t speak English – Actually English is the nations language, though we are made of many one people, our primary language is English, our broken English which is the equivalent to Ebonics up here is called Patois (pat-wa).
Jamaicans are never on time – ……maybe that’s true, but what black person is?
Tags: jamaica, just thoughts, stereotypes
Trackback from your site.
Comments (4)
Bre
| #
The other day, someone jokingly told me that Jamaican women are crazy and I understood his point after I thought about it. I know that you cannot label a group of people the same but most Jamaican women I’ve encountered (my mother and family members included have proved that point and even admit that they’re crazy too! But then again, the keyword in my previous sentence is MOST Jamaican women and not ALL. You brought up a great point in saying that when you mix irrationality and the accent together, you’d think they’re crazy as well. I never thought about it that way. Great article girl, proud of you!
Reply
Ja
| #
Since I am not Jamaican I have asked the question “do you speak Jamaican?” Although I have plenty of Jamaican friends it seems to us (and when I say us I mean me. lol) that when ya`ll are around other Jamaicans or with family ya`ll speak Patois..and to us its like being around a person of Latin decent speaking Spanish to their friends and fam…we still don’t understand it. lol But obviously I know now that it is more of an accent thing than it is a language.
Love you girl
Reply
Nelly
| #
The one I get continuously is, ” ooh ur Jamaican, so u lived down by the beach right! I bet u were at the beach every single day huh!” This statement urks me for two reasons… #1….yes Jamaica is an island but if EVERY single Jamaican lived ” lived down by the beach”, I’m sure the island would crack in the center and #2 I actually lived pretty close to the beach and regardless of the fact that I’m about that beach life I didn’t need anybody stereotypically pointing it out -______- not to mention the ones that ask whether or not we had ”real roads” or knew how to operate a computer…you know, cuz we didn’t have real electricity and stuff. I laughed so hard I believed I could really also sense into them. Smh lol
Reply
Ms. Danie Joh
| #
Lol Oh Goodness that is crazy i get those exact same questions and i did live on the beach lol (Harbor View) but i was NOT about that “beach life” ….
Reply