The Jamaican national slogan is “Out of Many, One People,” which symbolizes the unity of cultural minorities inhabiting the island nation. However, the Jamaican national slogan fails to identify the economic and racial disparities on the island. Jamaica may have “One People,” but Jamaica has two classes: the wealthy White elites and the poorer Black working-class. A clear example of this can be seen at the Jamaican Sandals Resorts. From a slave society owned by European powers to an independent nation, Jamaica is an island paradise showing the significant differences between the White wealthy owners of the hotels and their poorer Black workers. These individuals are surrounded by the extreme wealth of the landowners and tourists, while most Jamaicans will never possess such. Unpacking Jamaican tourism and underdevelopment sheds light on social, economic, and racial inequalities between the White resort owners in control and the Black Jamaican people who work for them.
Long Term Impacts of Colonization
Jamaica’s Black working-class citizens are primarily the descendants of Spanish and British plantation workers: a byproduct of decolonization (Buisseret, 2021). Upon arrival in 1494, the Spanish conquistadors enslaved many Jamaican natives. Then, British forces invaded and captured the island in 1655. The British landowners started plantations to cultivate sugar cane. This crop would make the British millions and provide a basis for the enslaved Black population to be subjugated by a White working-class to operate the plantation. Jamaica became a plantation labor-based industry as Europeans transported enslaved Africans to the island colony. Following a series of slave revolts and rebellions and several wars between the White British landowners and the local Black enslaved Jamaican population, the British government abolished slavery in the colony in 1834. After slavery was abolished, the sugar cane industry began to collapse in Jamaica with the loss of workers. After World War Two, the local Black population began transitioning to political independence from the United Kingdom (Buisseret, 2021).
In 1960s, a new, politically free Jamaica was at an economic disadvantage against global superpowers. Following their independence from British rule, a young Jamaican nation took many years to develop financial independence. However, like other Caribbean producers, Jamaica argued for access to European Union markets to increase the number of exports and help Jamaica grow its businesses. Furthermore, the economic earnings of the Jamaican people were stolen by White foreign owners from afar. The United States’ involvement in Jamaican territories regarding tourism and excluding small Jamaican-owned businesses left them to flounder (Barker, 2012).
Jamaica’s Extreme Economic Disparities
Sandals Jamaica Resorts continues the effects of decolonization since White resort owners overpower Jamaica’s Black working-class, who receive subpar wages for demanding work. At Sandals, Jamaica’s Black working-class is employed by White management foreigners who inhabit and own the resorts. Consider this: Sandals pay an average wage of $45-60 dollars a week to Black Jamaican citizens, while most White American Sandals workers make $1,300-1,600 dollars a week (Wilson, 2005). Since these White management elite foreigners inhabit Jamaican lands, they are considered a part of the country’s total income, making a profit from Jamaica’s Black working-class. In fact, the highest 20% of “Jamaicans” hold 47% of the nation’s income, while the lowest 20% only held 6%. Then, Jamaica’s economic issues continue as foreign investors, who own the resorts, take the profits from Jamaica back to their home nation. This inequality is shown in drastically different Gross National Incomes (GNIs): 2020 statistics show the GNI in Jamaica was $4,620, nearly a third of the global GNI, which is $11,067 (The World Bank, 2020). It is also apparent since “80% of the money tourism makes in Jamaica does not stay on the island but goes to multinational resorts” (Cucanga & Johnson, 2020).
The second significant inequality is between White tourists (mainly in the U.S. or Europe) and Black Sandals workers. Sandals Jamaica workers earn significantly less than their tourists. As described earlier, Jamaica has around one-third of the global GNI. Note that tourists, predominantly from the U.S. or Europe, have an average GNI of $64,530, and Great Britain tourists have a GNI of $39,830 (The World Bank, 2020). Sandals Resorts counter a racial disparity between White tourists and Black workers with statements of jobs given to Jamaican residents who seem fit to work they can provide for themselves and their families and use extra money to buy products from small Jamaican-owned businesses (Loop News, 2018). These statements display the capitalist hold on Jamaica, leading to a perpetuating economic issue due to low growth and public debt. Unfortunately for Jamaica, due to current insignificant leadership, there is no Jamaica industry for them to work in so that Jamaica may prosper as a nation (World Bank, 2017).
Emotional Labor of Sandals Workers
Now, why does all this matter? There is an established extreme class difference between tourists and Jamaican workers. If you watch any Sandals commercial, such as the one linked above, you will notice how the captions are meant to “relax” the customer- making them want a break from their day-to-day struggles. The predominantly White upper and middle-class families that visit their vent to these predominantly Black lower-class workers- resulting in emotional labor. Most wealthy tourists do not understand the significant income wealth boundary crossed with complaints to workers. Workers have a “dual position”: they are both providers of labor services and a part of the assigned product since tourists want to escape their realities and release tension onto another (Kingsbury, 2011).
An instructor picture for employees at a Sandals Resort in Negril, Jamaica.
A sign at Sandals (Negril, Jamaica) urges workers to turn their pain into pleasure, glorifying the masochistic “economy of passions.” The problematic notion is that enjoyment does not equate to happiness; however, enjoyment is “embodied and materialized” through social group divisions between Sandals employees and tourists (Kingsbury, 2011). Nevertheless, workers’ psychological task is showing enjoyment through their hardships on a relatively low salary and providing for their families.
Decolonization Affecting Today’s World
A Sandals (Montego Bay, Jamaica) beach lounge.
Decolonization is shown at Sandals Resorts as Jamaica’s Black working-class endures manual labor for white resort owners and tourists. A simple Google search of Sandals Jamaica workers paints a picture of all Black employees serving mainly White customers and is reminiscent of this plantation atmosphere. Sandals have released data that around 24,000 employees are African American and Jamaican natives (Silvera & Writer, 2018). However, Sandals has received backlash for possible incorrect information on employees, questioning the validity of their data (Silvera & Writer, 2018). After Sandals Resort faced racial controversy questioning the race and well-being of their employees, they have not released a statement of change or acknowledgment of the situation. What is bizarre is that Sandals denies the race problem in question but displays it in nearly every advertisement.
“Out of Many One People”
Most American tourists, predominantly white and affluent, travel to Jamaica to escape everyday responsibilities at a luxury beachfront resort- where life is “paradise” (Taylor, 1993). However, visitors may not truly understand the significant level of poverty, crime, and violence among the Jamaican people (World Bank, 2017). These individuals are predominantly the descendants of enslaved Africans from Jamaican plantations, still facing the consequences of racial discrimination today (Kelly & Bailey, 2017). Jamaica’s underdevelopment will be challenging to undo since successful resort companies, like Sandals, are conceptualized in a way that exonerates any responsibility for the containment of poverty. Thus, the racial disparity in Jamaica continues today with a few wealthy White owners having the financial control over the predominantly Black working population that was brought to the island to work on sugar cane plantations in the 1700s, and now their descendants work on resort “plantations.”
References
Daniel J. Buisseret, 2021. “Jamaica”. Britticana. https://www.britannica.com/place/Jamaica
David Barker, 2012. “Caribbean Agriculture in a Period of Global Change: Vulnerabilities and Opportunities”. Project Muse. 41-61. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/506722/summary
Frank Fonda Taylor, 1993. To Hell with Paradise: A History of the Jamaican tourist industry. University of Pittsburgh Press. 68-75. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6PELwccDK0EC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Most+American+tourists,+predominantly+white+and+affluent,+travel+to+Jamaica+to+escape+everyday+responsibilities+at+a+luxury+beachfront+resort-+where+life+is+“paradise”&ots=fC26o6Xxnn&sig=B12lWOEMVxbFoT0XFoOoT8WfKmA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Ian Boxill, 2004. “Towards an alternative tourism for Jamaica”. Emerald Insight. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09596110410537432/full/html
Janet Silvera and Senior Gleaner Writer, 2018. “Sandals defends hiring practice”. The Cleaner. https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20180609/sandals-defends-hiring-practice
Loop News, 2018. “Sandals dismisses ‘misleading’ video on entertainment hiring practices”. Loop.https://tt.loopnews.com/content/sandals-dismisses-misleading-video-entertainment-hiring-practices-3
Maria Emilia Cucanga and Suzette Johnson, 2020.”Return to paradise: A poverty perspective on Jamaica’s COVID-19 recovery response”. World Bank Blogs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/latinamerica/return-paradise-poverty-perspective-jamaicas-covid-19-recovery-response
Monique D. A. Kelly & Stanley R. Bailey, 2017. “Racial inequality and the recognition of racial discrimination in Jamaica”. Taylor and Francis Online. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504630.2017.1381835
Paul Kingsbury, 2011. “Sociospatial Sublimation: The Human Resources of Love in Sandals Resorts International, Jamaica”. Taylor and Francis Online. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00045608.2011.561096
Stuart Wilson, 2005. “Confessions Of… A Hotel General Manager”. Budget Travel. https://www.budgettravel.com/article/050609_confessionhotelmanager_4535
The World Bank, 2017. ”The World Bank in Jamaica”- World Bank Data. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/jamaica/overview#1
The World Bank, 2020. “GNI per capita, PPP (current international $) – Jamaica”. World Bank Data. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.PP.CD?locations=JM
