BALANCING AND JAMAICA

White Jamaicans from dominant families with well known products might get the impression that blacks of various classes who worked for them were their subjects, to whom they might choose to be kind or patronizing. Some of that thinking may have been justified and some not.

Black managers had an education equal to theirs, and if they made their peace with not being at the top, it could have had to do with a sort of balancing.

It wasn't the bosses who equipped them with the education and command they possess; it was the governance system, which was fought over and participated in by the whole society. It could well have had to do with another kind of balancing: balancing power.

People reached a certain level of comfort and wellbeing, and felt no compulsion to go further. They had an honorable role in keeping a system going, and if the bosses cooperated by treating them with consideration, that was the bosses role within the system. That made the system work better for all the lowly workers and their dependents, for the local economy, for the country. So the top down hierarchy was not an absolute one; everybody was doing their honorable part.