The campaign of the Black Lives Matter movement against racism reverberated in King's House yesterday as Governor General Sir Patrick Allen accepted as “offensive” a racist image on a British badge he is forced to wear on his breast on official duties.
Since Independence, Jamaican governors general have worn the breast star — one of Britain's highest honours — with an image depicting a white angel standing on the neck of a chained black man, which has become a flashpoint in the protests against racism.
“The governor general acknowledges and welcomes the concerns expressed by our citizens and the negative emotions that the image has caused, and assures his fellow Jamaicans that the necessary requests will be made for a revision of the image to the Lord Chancellor of the Order of St Michael and St George,” said a news release.
Campaigners against the image on the badge representing the Order of St Michael and St George contend that it is akin to the scene of the May 25 killing of black American George Floyd by a white police officer in Minnesota, United States.
“The original image may have been of St Michael slaying Satan, but the figure has no horns or tail and is clearly a black man.
