Not Junelle's fault: My take on the vitriol being meted out to Junelle Bromfield after Noah said what he said.

Junelle Bromfield running the 400 X 4 mixed relays
at the Paris Olympic Games

Author: Stacy Jeffery 

Opinion piece

From as early as I was aware, the rivalry between Jamaica and the United States was a real thing. They beat us in sports and we beat dem back. 

A suh it always guh. 

Over the years we've heard of some American athletes being banned for taking performance enhancement drugs and being stripped of gold medals and we cry foul and say, "That is unfair! They cheated. We could have gotten a medal. How are we as a little island to compete with that?" And let's face it, even if the wronged athlete receives the medal that was rightfully theirs after the cheater is found out, there is no comparison to standing on a medal podium, in front of thousands of people hearing your national anthem being played. It's a proud moment for you the athlete and your country, and for a country such as Jamaica that prides itself on being "little but tallawah", it is everything to us.

For our nation, pride in our people's exploits abroad means a lot to us. In sports, there is a 'feeling' that a playing field that should have been fair and level has not been so in the past to us.  There is the perception real or imagined, that our veteran athletes who have competed for us in the past, have been cheated out of medals and I especially think of our most beloved sprint Queen Merlene Ottey. You know, we have a feeling, she got cheated out of many gold or silver medals when she competed from 1979 up to the 1990s (Ottey officially retired from sprinting in 2012 after running for Slovenia). 

Yes, there is that feeling among all of us as a people that Merlene got a raw deal during her time representing us, in an era when it seemed officials and authorities in the track and field world turned a blind eye to the use of enhancement substances or steroids of some kind, and we have not forgotten.

I believe the level of hate and contempt shown to Ms. Bromfield lies in the recesses of 'that feeling'. That it was unfair, we got cheated, and 'dem tief we' opportunities of sporting glory, and that is why some of us Jamaicans are going at Junelle so hard. We see her as the enemy because the perception is "she is sleeping with the enemy". 

When you are in a relationship with someone you trust implicitly, it is impossible not to share stuff with them. There is no such thing as a communicationless relationship. Things will be said and secrets will be revealed. 

Bredda if yuh have yuh man or yuh woman, yuh a guh tell dem everything, all peepul bizniz weh shudnt share yuh a guh taahk. 

It is what it is. 

It was Noah Lyles responsibility to be tactful in that situation and be as coy as possible in his response to the interviewer. It's that simple. Unfortunately, that never happened and proverbially all hell broke loose.  Also, Junelle's 'I don't give a f*k' attitude did not help either and may have drawn further ire from Jamaicans, but I do understand that she will be loyal to her man. And that is okay.  I however believe more demureness in her attitude could have been displayed and maybe an apology (genuine or not) or an explanation of what happened to calm Jamaican tempers. No? 😬 

The issue is not Junelle at the core. It's the fact that we don't want to lose, and especially to the United States athletes. That is it. 

From it is perceived you're doing something to help the enemy you're persona non-grata.  In a sense, yuh lose yuh Jamaica card. I've seen comments on social media from folks saying that Junelle should not even bother to come back home; she is a sell-out and a Judas. 

The comments about her complexion only came after the comments about her being a Judas seemed to have no effect on her.  And that is a typical Jamaican 'tracing tactic', once we see that everything else we call you under the sun ain't working, we go more personal and start to describe you. And yes, our 'coming for you' is relentless. 

And one thing wid we, if yuh say anything bad about us or seem to be disloyal in any way Jamaicans are coming to get you. Now that Junelle did not make it to the 400m final the critics are even more emboldened in their attacks, relishing her failure, which is quite sad. She lost the chance to compete in the final, but Jamaica lost also, at a chance for a medal. We should be disappointed, not gleeful. That doesn't make sense. 

Do you remember the other day when a young girl posted a TikTok video of herself which she captioned something about returning to Jamaica after escaping Hurricane Beryl? How did Jamaican Twitter (X) treat the young miss? Yes, dem done her! Cuss her out until she had to go on her social media account and apologize. She also deleted the 'offending' post she had made. I wasn't offended but that is me, other people were hot under the gills for days, and the cussing and shaming mounted up. 

With her family's reputation on the line, baby girl had to say sumn. 

You may ask or I hope you would ask, "So if she posted on TikTok how it reach pon Twitter (X)?"

Well, correct me if I am wrong, I believe it was said that the young lady's account was private on TikTok. Suh how the video reach over there? And even if it wasn't a private account, how it reach pon X? She didn't share it.

The answer: Someone who had no business fassing decided to share it to the wider Jamaican social media space. And the rest as we know is history. 

There is a level of passion in us as a country that is unmatched. Channeled positively we can do great things, and many of our people have done very great things, but channeled into negative behaviour, we can be very destructive, and we take almost a sadistic pleasure in it. 

Junelle supports Noah, but chose to represent us. She lives abroad now but she chose to run for Jamaica. That should mean something to us. She is still our girl. You can still be Jamaican and love a person from a different country. What Noah said should not be a reflection on Junelle. I don't think she expected him to reveal what he said in the interview, and maybe Noah himself didn't think it would be such a big deal. And should it have been? Athletes will trash talk, and the Americans are good at it. Maybe we should beat them at their own game and start doing some trash talking too, eh? Or ... maybe not. 

We skin thin, if anybody seh certain tings to we, we will fight dem! So, maybe not then.

The point is, it never needed to come to this. And we know it.

The rivalry between the United States and Jamaica has always been an epic one, but please let's not destroy our own because of it. Let up on the young lady. Let it go!! Jamaica, forgive and move past this. We are just as good as other athletes or other professionals in any arena on the world stage. We should let go of the chip we've been carrying on our shoulders and continue to be the great people we know we are.