Cake Soap By Vybz Kartel

Vybz Kartel a popular dancehall artiste in jamaica has released where he openly acknowledges that he bleaches his skin and/or the promotion of doing so. In Kartel's song "Cake Soap" (2010), he says in Jamaican creole (also known as Jamaican patois), "Cool, like mi wash mi face wit di cake soap" (meaning that he washes his face with cake soap, a Jamaican term for a detergent soap that contains bleach and that some people reportedly use to lighten their skin). In the 2011 song "Look Pon We" (featuring Russian), Kartel boldy states "Di gyal dem love off mi bleach out face!! The girls love my bleached face!!" He has other songs with similar destructive messages. Despite being currently incarcerated, Kartel remains a leading presence in the Jamaican …show more content…
According to Charles A.D (2003), Skin Bleaching, Self hate and black identity, “Some Jamaicans Blacks use whiteness or brownness strategically, not because they feel inferior, but because they have incorporated all the values in a multiethnic society” (p. 725)., one cannot ignore the fact that there is an obvious self-deprecating attitude among some Jamaicans. This is due to strong retentions of the divisive phenomenon of slavery which instilled subliminal messages that individuals with black skin are inferior; these attitudes are still ingrained in our society today, causing some individuals to strive for acceptance, hence the obsession with skin-bleaching. According to Damien Williams in a Facebook comment, "Color and class intersect/overlap and mobility and color/class are correlated. Therefore, apart from wanting to belong, the poor, black man or woman just wanna step up inna life like anybody else, and color is his/her transport." Skin bleaching however, can lead to physical and social …show more content…
Several years ago, to be a bank teller was dependent on your skin color, length of hair and so-called beauty but mostly ones skin color. Slavery strongly impacted on this. Over a century and a half of freedom and 53 years of independence yet an individual’s skin color is of grave importance to the point where people bleach their skin to be of a more socially preferred skin color. The injustice of color discrimination is perpetuated through our culture and music, in our churches and schools, government and private-sector entities, and the very sentiments we express daily basis. According to Hunter M. (2007) “…system of discrimination, what I am calling colorist, is at the level of skin tone: darker skin or lighter skin. Although all blacks experience discrimination as blacks, the intensity of that discrimination, the frequency, and the outcomes of that discrimination will differ dramatically by skin