Atlanta Daily World

Troubles Of Jamaican Couple Show England's Color Bar

LONDON - (ANP) The troubles of a young Jamaican couple who recently emigrated to England has given Britishers ample evidence that the island kingdom has color troubles almost as bad as its ally across the Atlantic.

Keith Edwards, 30, and Queenie Marques, 24, came to England after economic conditions in Jamaica had made it impossible for them to earn a living.

Once in the "promised land," Keith and Queenie became rapidly disillusioned. Although they earn enough to live on and to pay for such items as a trumpet, the couple says the color bar has given them more than their share of trouble.

"I am a qualified electrician," said Keith, "but I was told at my first labor exchange that I didn't stand a chance because I didn't belong to the Electrical Trades union.

"But I read the 'jobs vacant' columns and found there are firms which are not closed shops.

"I applied at one firm which advertised and was told 'No Vacancy.' That was when they saw the color of my face. I know this is so because a white-looking Trinidad friend of mine, who is actually colored, applied for the same job after me and was offered it."

Keith said that it is not job discrimination that hurts as much as the lack of friendship and respect.

Said Keith: "People edge away from us on busses. If three or four of us go to a town, we are told we have had our ration of alcohol before each of us bought a round. People at work feel our skins to see if they are rough, like animals. They ask us if we can wear white without the color coming off."

Since Keith and Queenie arrived in April, they have been asked only once into a white home.

But they keep searching for white people who will try to understand them.

"If people would only try to get to know us, they would not find us so very different," Queenie said, "or so very inferior after all."