H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie I July

y massive lorries. Their arrival in the morning looked like a
military occupation with all of them jumping from the lorries,
then taking the walk-way to assembly they would pass the Headmaster
on the porch of his office followed with the greeting….Morning,
Mr. Jackson; Morning, Mr. Jackson. “Morning”
was the recurrent echo as each of the mass greeted the Headmaster.
So, on seeing this and assuming it was a (necessary) assigned
act, I copied it. The first morning when I greeted him
(Headmaster) on my way to assembly…”Morning, Mr. Jackson”….the
response was a deep clearance of his throat and spit
then flew over my head
(due to my small stature).
As a heavy smoker I
thought that explained his
response....until it was reenacted
for a second and
third time. At age 12 plus I
was forced to realistically
admit that a white English
Headmaster had a blatant
disregard for such a greeting...”Morning,
Mr. Jackson”
coming from a local
student of African descent
(Black)…Racism??? the
familiarity in Jamaica
then was class discrimination
propagated by the
people of fairer skin and
upper economic status.