‘Scorned’ Dancehall Star Yellowman Is Still Facing Racism
The periodic outcry against racism is again dominating headlines following the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent protests worldwide. But for people like dancehall toaster Yellowman, there is nothing periodic about the discrimination he continues to face even post-stardom.
The 64-year-old, who was born with albinism, said he has gotten used to the judgmental stares, scornful gestures, and closed doors. He, however, cannot acclimatize to racially-driven crimes.
“Mi used to everything; discrimination, racism, because even now inna dis time and age mi a face prejudice and scorn same way,” Yellowman told DancehallMag. “But mi nuh used to the killing of black people because you hate somebody’s skin colour.”
The Zungguzungguguzungguzeng hitmaker bears one of dancehall’s greatest success stories, from shifting through orphanages after being rejected by his mother at birth, to becoming the first dancehall act to be signed to a major international record label, Columbia Records, in 1983.
His indelible contribution to Jamaican popular music earned him the national honour of Order of Distinction in 2018, but even at that moment, the deejay said he was treated with disdain.
“When I was at King’s House getting the honour mi see the discrimination there too,” Yellowman started. “There was a certain policewoman there who actually discriminated against me one time when we were on a plane going to Miami. The plane did full, so she couldn’t change seat or get up, but mi know she did waan get up from beside me cause all through the flight her back was turned to me.”
“At the national honours she did it again, but this time she got up and claim she a wait pon the Prime Minister to sit beside him but pity she don’t know that I remember her from the plane.”
Yellowman added, “There was a bishop at the event who also scorned me. Him tek up him chair at the rehearsal and sat elsewhere and a doctor who was there noticed and look pon me and seh, ‘you understand though?’ and mi seh, ‘yes mi understand…’. Even the day of the event, the bishop did it again, so these things still happen.”
His story of resilience traces back to his time at children’s homes, from the Swift Purcell Boys’ Home in St Mary to the Maxfield Park Children’s Home, Alpha Boys’ Home, and Eventide Home in Kingston. The young Winston Foster said he was teased and called a “white man” by the other children, but used the ridicule to engender his unshakeable self-confidence and sex symbol status.
With the encouragement of Sister Mary Ignatius Davies (a nun who digged secular music and owned a sound system at Alpha Boys’ Home), the aspiring entertainer made his way on the sound system circuit and earned his first major audience after placing second in the 1979 Tastee’s Talent competition.
Opposition remained abound despite his feat. The skilled lyricist would be turned away from studios because of his skin colour, and even confirmed that several deejays used to place a handkerchief over the microphone if he used it first.
“All of how dem used to deal with me gave me strength,” he said.
“I have to big up Tastee because they are the ones who gave me the big chance, and Henry ‘Jungo’ Lawes gave me the chance in the studio. Everybody else run me away and called me names. Most of the entertainers back in the day would say a because of mi colour why mi reach far. It has changed about 90 per cent, but it still happens. Even Bounty Killer and his rival [Beenie Man] prejudice against me. It’s not because the other one seh him a king of dancehall, that doesn’t bother me because I believe in freedom of speech so a man can seh anything him want to.”
While he respects people having the right to advocate for racial equality, the deejay has grown hopeless that such a world will ever exist.
“Weh mi woulda like fi see happen nah go happen cause this has been going on for years and years,” he said. “American President Thomas Jefferson did put that all men are equal in America, and that was decades ago and racism still a happen and will continue. It’s been said by Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, me…so all of who a try say it now, dem a waste dem time.”
Yellowman’s latest track, Rise and Fall featuring his daughter K’Reema, was released last week on Collie Buddz’ Cali Roots Riddim.
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