Don’t judge a man by his colour

In The Merchant of Venice, the Prince of Morocco tells Portia, “Mislike me not for my complexion. The shadowed livery of the burnished sun, to whom I am a neighbour and near bred.’’

This translates, “Do not hold my skin colour against me. I was born and raised in the sun which is why I am dark skinned. But I am as red blooded as any man.’’

To win Portia’s hand, there was a choice among a gold, silver and lead casket. The prize lay in the lead casket. Are we merely interested in surface characteristics, such as colour or do we want enduring values?

Williams, Chambers and Manning were of a lighter complexion than Rowley, does that make them better than him? History will judge them all.

Black is a colour, not a race. A man should not be judged by his colour. Let us not turn a blind eye to colour prejudice and by extension race prejudice. One is either black or white, there is no grey. A startling revelation when one ventures abroad. Disliking someone because of their skin colour is foolish. We are a black society, like it or not.

Suddenly, we have become a colour conscious society, we are conveniently black when it suits our purpose. Remember the house slave, he lived in the same house as the master and wore his old clothes. He had no thoughts of running away. When the master was sick, the slave would say, “Boss we sick?’’ Frantz Fanon did some work in this area. He researched why some black people hate their own. Black skin, White masks delved into the psychology of oppression. Sparrow put it best, “Black is Beautiful.”

AV RAMPERSAD

Princes Town