Ja: Letter to the editor

Kingston College is without doubt one of the finest High Schools in Jamaica. Their performance on the track and on the field at Boys' Champs this year was, not surprisingly, full of class, and nothing can be said to in any way deny the athletes and coaches an ounce of credit for their outstanding victory.

The behaviour of supporters of Kingston College in the stands however is a completely different issue. The use of a purple and white flag depicting a swastika to supposedly show support to the athletes, is the saddest and at the same time the most disturbing incident to occur at a boys' and/or girls' Championship in years. What is even more disturbing are the excuses being given by different groups in defence of the incident. The swastika, it is true, as Mutabaruka and other learned men and women who pride themselves on their knowledge of African and world history have been quick to point out, goes back far beyond the days of Hitler to ancient Ghana and India.

At some point however, we must stop fooling ourselves. The absolute most dominant image associated with the symbol is the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler and the burning, starving and mutilating of non-whites associated with it. Now I may be idealistic, but it is the absolute saddest thing in the world to see black men and women actively parading with the symbol, which at one point stood for the desire to annihilate their very existence.

Somewhere some skinheads are smiling at our apparent ignorance while our ancestors who dedicated their lives to instil in us a sense of racial pride must be turning in their graves for the same reason.

Somebody ought to hire this guy to be the principal of Kingston College.