Davina's sparkle & royal-to-be Markle

Monday, December 04, 2017

Last Sunday evening Jamaicans here and abroad joined 2017 Miss Universe Jamaica Davina Bennett on an emotional ascent in the Miss Universe contest held in Las Vegas, USA. Social media posts multiplied as she survived the winnowing of 92 competitors, her afro a halo of ethnic affirmation. She may be second runner-up, but her natural beauty has already attracted the attention of such top magazines as Essence, Elle and People.

A tweet from the first black woman television series producer Shonda Rhimes ( Scandal, Grey's Anatomy) highlighted our pride: “I am clearly going to need some Miss Jamaica dolls for my daughters, so they can play with a doll that shows them they are fully EVERYTHING the universe ever needed.”

Now, I have never been a fan of beauty contests because of their tendency to objectify women, but I believe that Davina Bennett made a remarkable statement for women of colour.

Just as we were catching our breath, we learned last Tuesday that Britain's Prince Harry is engaged to the beautiful mixed-race actress Meghan Markle. You will be relieved to know that Markle is no 'roast breadfruit', as we call race deniers in Jamaican parlance. In an article she wrote in Elle magazine, in 2015, she described her dilemma when, in high school, she was asked to check a box for race.

Her teacher suggested 'Caucasian', but Meghan wrote, “I put down my pen. Not as an act of defiance, but rather a symptom of my confusion. I couldn't bring myself to do that, to picture the pit-in-her-belly sadness my mother would feel if she were to find out. So, I didn't tick a box. I left my identity blank — a question mark, an absolute incomplete — much like how I felt.”

Meghan's African American mother, Doria Radlan, is a clinical psychologist and yoga instructor with a master's degree in social work. When she shared the experience with her wise dad, Thomas Markle, of Irish-Dutch roots, he advised, “If that happens again, you draw your own box.” She says this advice has been guiding her, and so we believe she, like our Davina, will inspire young women to resist threats to their authenticity.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/opinion/media-nostalgia-miss-ja-universe-and-a-royal-engagement_118911?profile=1096