‘I didn’t choose my skin colour’… Golding hits out at JLP leadership amid racist rhetoric

People's National Party (PNP) President, Mark Golding, says he is disappointed that the leadership of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has not denounced the racist rhetoric that has been directed at him by some of its members. 

“I am very disappointed in the leadership of the Jamaican Labour party that they tacitly encourage this kind of behaviour because to me it indicates a lack of principle on their part,” he said. 

Government Members of Parliament Juliet Cuthbert Flynn and Everald Warmington have been at the forefront of a racially charged attack on the opposition leader, targeting him because of his skin colour and ethnicity.

At a recent political meeting, Warmington asserted that a white man should never become Prime Minister of Jamaica. 

“We are descendants of the slaves. We nuh want nuh descendant of slave master come rule us again.

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“It's better my dog bite me, than the white man dog bite me,” he said. 

Using the her platform at the JLP's 81st annual conference on Sunday, Cuthbert Flynn referred to Golding as “Markie British”, stating that he is  “a man who believes in holding chains around the around the neck of black people,” and that “him a tek picture a hold chain round man neck, the Rastaman neck.”

She was referring to a photo of Golding from a brief skit at a PNP political meeting, in which Golding is shown holding a chain around a Rastafarian's neck, a symbolic gesture intended to represent the Opposition leader freeing him from bondage.

However, Cuthbert Flynn provided no context for the image.

But speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Golding reiterated that he is a proud Jamaican. 

“I am a born Jamaican, I didn't choose my skin colour - I am loyal Jamaican, a patriotic Jamaican and I am giving of myself to serve the people of Jamaica,” he said. 

He described the racial attacks by members of the JLP as desperate. 

“In a sense, I am flattered that all they can really attack me on is the colour of my skin,” he said. 

“I don't think any political leader has faced what I have been facing in this regard and it is because they see that the tide is turned against them, and the people of Jamaica are fed up with them - the dishonesty, the lack of integrity, and a government that pursues policies that don't benefit people in a direct way, so people have loss hope, people want change,” he added. 

Golding is also concerned about how these racist remarks from government members may impact Jamaica's image globally. 

“Jamaica is part of the family of nations, we live in a world that is very connected and other countries, other races of people are looking on and saying how it is that the Government of Jamaica is allowing a junior minister or a former minister, two MPs, to be using racial taunts and slurs as a source of attacking a political opponent - it's very bad form and it's unfortunate for Jamaica and it really needs to stop,” he said. 

- Sashana Small