I wore dreadlocks for 30 year; academia to corporate, USA, South America. Europe and all across the Caribbean.

All my negative experiences were from people who also had Afrikan ancestors. Travelling in the Caribbean was the most traumatic.

One experience that stands out was when I was teaching at Extramural on Camp Road. One year, on the first evening of class the then director Ken Carter came into my classroom while I was providing the overview for my Consumer Psychology course.

A senior civil servant who had registered for the class had gone to him when she arrived and found out that I was teaching the class. She requested that her tuition be refunded because "Rasta can't teach har nottin".

He shared the story with the class and invited all that were of that position to come to the office for a refund. He explained to them that I was the best qualified person in Jamaica to teach the class and that there was a waiting list for those who could not get into the class.

No one took him up on his offer. (Including the senior civil servant).

This one of many "dreadlocks" experiences including arrest and deportation while traveling in the Caribbean on UWI/government business.

"Plus les choses changent, plus elles restent les mêmes."