Seeing Kay Osborne looking stunning in your newspaper of August 3, reminds me that in Jamaica, with some things, the more things change, the more they remain the same. The contest that Osborne won in 1967 was Miss Jamaica Nation, a title that was inspired by Jamaica's Independence.

At the time people called Miss Osborne Miss Black Jamaica because the contest was organised by a group of well-thinking black Jamaicans including me and led by Dr Abeng Doonquah. We were alarmed that back then the Miss Jamaica contest organisers, by and large, discriminated against dark-skinned Jamaican girls as few were winning the Miss Jamaica contest, no matter how beautiful of face, perfect in shape, articulate in speech and informed on current affairs. Indeed, the argument from the Miss Jamaica organisers at the time was that they could not select dark-skinned girls because they couldn't make it in the Miss World contest.

Black consciousness

This incensed many Jamaicans of all walks of life, especially because the black consciousness movements in the USA and Africa were in full bloom. Dr Doonquah and his associates felt that since Jamaica was made up of mostly dark-skinned girls, the practice of overwhelmingly selecting fair-skinned girls and holding them up as Jamaica's most beautiful girls was discriminatory and actually damaging to the psyche of the entire Jamaica nation of mostly dark skinned people.

We felt that it was an insult to our women and so we decided to start a contest in 1962 to showcase Jamaica's beautiful girls who were systematically excluded from winning the Miss Jamaica beauty contest number one position. This is the genesis of the Miss Jamaica Nation contest which Miss Osborne won in 1967. Today the problem that the Miss Jamaica Nation contest was addressing more than 40 years ago seems more entrenched than ever before.

I am, etc.,

WILLIAM WATSON

williamwatt72@live.com

Fort Lauderdale

Florida