Sylvia Wynter's Dream

We can note the different reactions to Patois used as comedy versus the story of what it is really like being White in Jamaica

Warning: Videos do contain expletives

The TikToker ‘Nestadibesta’ is a white Jamaican who often makes funny videos containing exaggerated Patois in order to mimic how many white tourists sound when they try to duplicate the Jamaican language. His audiences often laugh at these videos and they can be seen shared multiple times on various social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter as several of his videos have gone viral.

Nestadibesta’s content is easier received as they are mostly comedy. However, if we assess the feedback he gets on his posts versus that of ‘Madwhitejamaican’ (another white Jamaican TikToker), who doesn’t make fun of the language himself but speaks like a native Jamaican, we see that more people question his ‘Jamaicaness’ and may even accuse him of making fun of the language.

Madwhitejamaican’s content is just like any other Jamaican TikTok content creator. He often pulls his stories from real life events and uses that to engage with his audience.

There are far more videos on his page explaining that he is indeed Jamaican compared to Nestadibesta even though he himself did not start his content based on race nor language.

We can see how comedy about the language is acceptable no matter who it comes from but having someone who doesn’t suit the image of a ‘authentic Jamaican’ speak Patois, we question their intentions instead of publicizing the content as a positive thing.

The question of the day is: Do we reject madwhitejamaican as a true Jamaican because his skin does not match with the version (uptown) of Patois we would expect a white man to speak?