This column is about Jamaica, a nation slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut. And at a contextual level, it’s about the prominent role native or U.S. born Jamaicans have played in history past and present. And to bring it into today’s news cycles, it’s about the powerful roles that the familiar names of Tonya Chutkan and Kamala Harris continue to play in legal and presidential politics. We’ll get to them shortly.
Now given the fact that I was born and raised in a segregated small town in the South, one where the racial color line was clear – you were either Black or white with no shades of gray in between – my perspective was thrown on its head when I boarded that Greyhound bus to Boston and discovered that beneath our pigmentation all Black folks ain’t Black folks and that the shades of gray were also about national origin, language and culture. Next thing I knew I found myself seated in subways, in classrooms and on the job with sisters and brothers from different mothers from Trinidad, Kenya, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and, the focus of this narrative, Jamaica!
I fast forward now to decades later, a time when I first dipped my toes into the sky-blue sea in Montego Bay, the cool waters of Dunn River Falls, or my fork into the best red snapper in the universe while vacationing in Jamaica.
Which brings us now to today and the following questions:
What immediately comes to mind when you conjure up images of Jamaica? Beautiful sun-swept beaches? …Reggae music? …Jerk chicken? …violence? …Ganja? (or, ahem, maybe cat and dog eaters if you don’t know the difference between Haitians and Jamaicans).
Now if you’re scratching your head for answers, and if I were to tell you to add to those images that Jamaica is the birthplace or lineage of influential American-born doctors, lawyers, PhDs, athletes, scientists, etc., who have contributed to our nation would you ding me as off my rocker or having puffed on some high grade Jamaica ganga? Well, hold your answers to those questions for now.
You see, not one to bypass an opportunity when someone or an event opens the door of ignorance, like a kid in the candy store, I’ll walk in and slam the door behind me on ignorance, myths, silly distortions and outright lies. And one of the most effective door closers is pointing out or expanding on little known important facts.
But first a short history on Jamaica, one that was either briefly touched on or missing entirely from your world history class.
Jamaica is the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea after Cuba and Hispaniola. It is about 146 miles long and varies from 22 to 51 miles wide. It is situated some 100 miles west of Haiti, 90 miles south of Cuba, and 390 miles northeast of the nearest point on the mainland, Cape Gracias a Dios, on the Caribbean coast of Central America. The national capital is Kingston. The reader would be well served by following up this narrative with further research on the rich history of Jamaica.
Jamaica is known to be the birthplace of reggae, Bob Marley, world’s fastest sprinters, Blue Mountain coffee, Red Stripe beer, Jamaican rum, beautiful beaches, jerk dishes, luxurious all-inclusive resorts and majestic waterfalls. Interested in knowing who else has ancestral ties to Jamaica? Well, here are a few names that jog your memory: former NBA player Patrick Ewing….National Security Advisor Susan Rice…late Secretary of State Colin Powell….retired sprinter Usian Bolt!
Let’s now return this focus to two prominent contemporary high profile public figures both with links to Jamaica, Harris and Chutkan.
Donald Jasper Harris, is a Jamaican-American economist and emeritus professor at Stanford University, known for applying post-Keynesian ideas to development economics. He was the first Black scholar granted tenure in the Stanford Department of Economics, and he is the father of Kamala Harris, the incumbent Vice President of the United States and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.
Harris was born and raised in Jamaica, attended the University College of the West Indies before earning a Bachelor’s degree from the University of London and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He held professorships at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, and University of Wisconsin-Madison before joining Stanford University as professor of economics.
Now to Judge Chutkan.
Tanya Chutkan was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She has a younger brother and sister, both of whom are physicians. Her father is an Indo-Jamaican doctor, and her mother Noelle is an Afro-Jamaican who was one of the leading dancers at the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from George Washington University and later attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was an associate editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. She graduated in 1987 with a Juris Doctor.
In the end, we’re left with the question of how can a nation roughly half the size of Vermont churn out such an array of talent spanning such a wide range of professions? Well for yours truly, the answers are hiding right there in plain sight; when the door of opportunity opens, point out the ironies and push back the lies, distortions and stereotypes. Give yourself a vacation from social media and your echo chamber. Gift yourself with the gift of curiosity, the real deal about what’s on the other side of the news.
And what an awesome gift that is! © Terry Howard is an award-winning writer and storyteller, a contributing writer with the Chattanooga News Chronicle, The Douglas County Sentinel, The American Diversity Report, The BlackMarket.com and recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Leadership Award.