The Voice Of The Jamaican Ghetto: Incarcerated but not Silenced

by Adidja Palmer

New York earning a large pay cheque and had sent money back home to buy the vehicle. A few days later, a property that he was guarding got robbed by armed men. Miraculously the youth survived and went home counting his blessings, scared and shaken. He was awoken the next morning with guns in his face, roughed up and his home searched by senior members of the security company and the police. Why? There was no evidence to suggest any wrong doing. His supervisors said he acted courageously but that was not good enough – he was a ghetto youth with a rich friend – that’s the reputation that preceded him. He was forced to leave his job and eventually migrated. 23 years later, he is now in Canada doing well but he is still shaken at the thought that he endured such injustice just because he was a ghetto youth. 23 years later, the same owners of that company are lauded as business leaders and these are the very people that say that Dancehall is slackness. Wouldn't you consider this type of behaviour to be slackness? Go figure.