Out of place: race and colour in Jamaican hotels, 1962-2020

TY - JOUR

T1 - Out of place

T2 - race and colour in Jamaican hotels, 1962-2020

AU - Altink, Henrice

PY - 2021/10

Y1 - 2021/10

N2 - As hotels are a microcosm of society, they offer a useful case study to explore social inequalities, including racial divisions. This article examines the experiences of African-Jamaican hotel workers and guests from independence in 1962 till the present in order to demonstrate Jamaica’s complex and changing race and color relations. It will argue that hotel workers and guests at times challenged the island’s race and color relations but more often upheld them as a result of their socialization into a long-standing ethos of ‘black is nuh good’. It will also show that through their responses to claims about racial discrimination in hotels, a variety of stakeholders, including tourist organizations, failed to challenge the island’s color hierarchy which placed whites on top, light-skinned Jamaicans in the middle, and dark-skinned Jamaicans at the bottom.

AB - As hotels are a microcosm of society, they offer a useful case study to explore social inequalities, including racial divisions. This article examines the experiences of African-Jamaican hotel workers and guests from independence in 1962 till the present in order to demonstrate Jamaica’s complex and changing race and color relations. It will argue that hotel workers and guests at times challenged the island’s race and color relations but more often upheld them as a result of their socialization into a long-standing ethos of ‘black is nuh good’. It will also show that through their responses to claims about racial discrimination in hotels, a variety of stakeholders, including tourist organizations, failed to challenge the island’s color hierarchy which placed whites on top, light-skinned Jamaicans in the middle, and dark-skinned Jamaicans at the bottom.

KW - race

KW - jamaica

KW - discrimination

KW - tourism

KW - post-colonial

U2 - 10.1163/22134360-bja10014

DO - 10.1163/22134360-bja10014

M3 - Article

SN - 1382-2373

VL - 95

SP - 254

EP - 287

JO - New West Indian Guide

JF - New West Indian Guide

ER -