Racial inequality and the recognition of racial discrimination in Jamaica, by Monique Kelly

Monique Kelly, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology

A growing body of literature posits that a population's denial of the salience of racial discrimination acts to perpetuate it. Moreover, scholars locate a population’s propensity to deny racial discrimination in contemporary ideologies of racial mixing or ethnic fusion. Most quantitative studies of public opinion on these issues are limited to Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. However, I focus on Jamaica. Through national census data and the AmericasBarometer social survey, I have examined the extent of Jamaica’s contemporary racial inequality and how recognition of discrimination characterizes Jamaican public opinion. Additionally, I have explored the salience of an ideology of racial mixing in Jamaica and tested whether that ideology affects the likelihood that Jamaicans acknowledge contemporary racial discrimination. My findings document dramatic social inequality by skin colour in Jamaica and suggest that a majority embrace an ideology that racial mixing is negatively associated with Jamaicans’ recognition of racial discrimination, providing us with a better understanding of ideologies of racial mixing and racial inequality in the Americas.