Half-agony. Half-hope. Author Hopeton Gray is a testament that we all have different stories but we are all self-made.
We’ve seen the term ‘implicit bias’ go somewhat mainstream in the last few years, particularly after Hillary Clinton mentioned it in the US presidential debates of 2016. We’ve also heard huge companies like Google and Starbucks use implicit bias training in the hopes of increasing diversity and inclusion. But what exactly does the term mean?
Implicit bias (IB), otherwise known as stereotyping, is basically thought processes that happen without you even knowing it. VeryWellMind.com defines it as unconscious association, belief, or attitude toward any social group. They are, in a sense, mental shortcuts that your brain takes without your conscious knowledge. Due to implicit biases, you may often ascribe certain characteristics to all members of a particular group, generalizing your attribution.
But first, some clarification: Although racism is defined as a personal belief in the superiority of one’s race over another, calling someone a racist is not the same as marking him or her implicitly biased. However, race is just one overlapping identity that is subjected to systemic inequality and stereotyping; disability and gender are others.
“We’ve all grown up in a culture with media images, news images, conversations we’ve heard at home, our education ﹘ think of those as a fog we’ve been breathing our whole life. We never even realize what we’re taking in,” says Dolly Chugh, associate professor and social psychologist at New York University Stern School of Business Dolly Chugh in a Freedom Project Wa vlog.
And that fog causes generalizations or associations and leaves biases.
“I somehow know that when you say ‘peanut butter’ I’m gonna say ‘jelly’. That’s an association that’s been ingrained in me because throughout my life, peanut butter and jelly are together. And in many forms of media there’s an overrepresentation of black men and violent crime being paired together,” she explains further. Because of this, we have somehow been taught, without us knowing, that black men are thugs ﹘ violent, aggressive, and not to be trusted.
Author/performer Hopeton Gray brings up one of the IB ideas by talking about it in his book The Two Faces of A Bag Poet — the idea of a dangerous neighborhood that he calls ‘The Block’. In the real world, many people automatically assume that the violence in some low-income neighbourhoods is the result of the black people or people from minority cultures living there. But it is not always a fact. “Generally, that assumption is true due to our plantation mentality and dislike for each other. The Block is a ghetto where only the city Aborigines live. We are contained within our enclaves so we rob and cheat each other — [typical] ghettoism,” he says. Disagreeing that the assumption is biased, he adds, “But there is a lot of social deficiency and marginalization that must be taken into consideration.”
He thinks anyone, at some time, can display biased perception and worse, racist behavior — Whites against Whites, Blacks against Blacks, and every cultural group in between. To him, it is only human nature to form some disunity because there are so many aspects involved that form biases, like class, skin color and religion.
In social media, Hopeton openly expresses his sympathies for the struggles of the black people, many of which he experienced first-hand: “Being disadvantaged, I had to work hard and [was often] isolated…I know the struggles on the streets and even in corporate offices and it is not easy. One of the struggles [I experienced] was being marginalized and isolated because there were not a lot of Blacks around. There is an imbalance to my home life compared to corporate existence with my white folks.”
Despite feeling isolated and trying to fit in during his years abroad, this compelling and imaginative author of three books believes no man is an island. He even admits that to even try to live by oneself would be difficult and that “meeting people is refreshing, exchanging ideas, social mixing, thus forming a niche, a network where our basic needs are met through exchange.” As a famous African proverb says, ‘The poorest man in this world is not one without money but the one without people.’
Hopeton agrees, saying, “Living without people, you are really poor. Being a people person is an advantage in the scheme of things.”
Born in Jamaica to a Christian family, Hopeton moved to the United Kingdom where he attended Spencer Park School in South London. As building services engineer — and later Master of Engineering Science from the University of Sydney in Australia — he travelled in different places across the world, initially being recruited in 1979 by the Papua New Guinea government. After his three-year contract had ended, he decided to move to Sydney and take up his master’s. “I fell in love with Sydney where I stayed for over thirty years, the longest I’ve been anywhere.
Currently, he is an author, performer and a dub-poet, but writing has always been his go-to preoccupation, describing it as his “comforter”. He has been writing poems almost everyday since his late teens. “Later on I started writing prose to enhance the poetry which alone is hard to get published. I began to write at a much better level when preparing my master’s thesis in 1985,” he recalls.
Defending the minority
Hopeton’s novel, The Two Faces of A Bag Poet, explores issues associated with being an Aboriginal youth as seen from the eyes of its main character Mary Coombla, including complexities surrounding identity formation and the role and impact of engagement with Aboriginal culture on the wellbeing of contemporary Aboriginal youth.
“I lived among the Aborigines for many years,” he recounts, attending the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales as a postgraduate student. The university proximity to the inner city suburb of Redfern, the City Road and Glebe allowed him to meet and interact with many mixed-blood Aborigines.
“I admire their resilience and faithfulness to their race and their ancestors. I felt a part of their struggle, much I am familiar with. I grew up in London where I saw the same invisible prejudice so I decided to write about myself growing up in London through a young Aboriginal girl named Mary Coombla,” he reveals.
Mary Coombla is about him, Hopeton insists, and how he would have cherished the love his parents provided, given the disadvantaged situation of being poor and belonging in a minority group. He relates to the character big time, picking up important lessons from his experiences attending school in London and what he saw on the streets of Redfern. In a lot of ways, Hopeton was Mary and Mary was Hopeton.
“I thought of my schooling at an all-white secondary school in the UK. They had a few token blacks. I thought of poetry and the publication of poetry. So I became a dub poet…Dub-poetry is poetic lyrics riding the rhythm of the music. It was about commercialization of the product, so I thought of me and my daughter taking the stage,” he says, adding that he went into music — taking the stage name Starman — hoping to make it big with his poetry and ended up producing a few CDs and music videos.
The whole reflection took him back to his early days living away from his home country of Jamaica, and finally sparking an inspiration from inside his heart to write The Two Faces of A Bag Poet. The novel came together in about two years. taking into account several editing and revision, it was ready to be published after five years of hard work.
The story follows Mary as a young girl struggling to grow up in an inner city in Sydney, Australia. In the book, we see her charting her transition to school life after winning a scholarship to All Saints High School, adopting a Rastafarianism to gain social status in search for strong cultural links and self-discovery. From there, she begins her own coming-of-age journey that brings her closer to her family and her people. Hopeton says that through all this, there is wisdom to gain from the character.
“‘Keep the peace and forever progress against adversity’ was the motto for All Saints High School. When the marbles are against you, keep on trying. Then others along the way will assist you in your quest,” the author notes.
While there is “strong compromise” and respectable tolerance in modern-stay Australia for the Aborigines, he thinks many of the mixed-race city dwellers are marginalized, adding that “most Aborigines live in their enclaves and are unemployed. They live mainly on the Dole, in prisons or in a government housing scheme. Few get a go but for the majority, they are dispossessed. I feel sympathetic to their cause, especially on losing their land and their freedom to the settlers.”
How far have we come in cultural diversity awareness? There is much discussion these days about whether it is best to live in the moment, whether looking back is a good thing, or whether we should always have an eye to the future. In reality, we spend much of the day flicking between these different temporal perspectives but no matter who we are, we all bleed red.
For many of us, the ability to have an eye for the future and remain responsive to diversity is undeniably a skill which all humans, especially those in positions of leadership, should be cultivating. Without clarity on why diversity matters, conversations will always feel unproductive, and advocates will often find it difficult to take action.
Diversity may not be the end goal, but it is a means to a more inclusive, more fair-minded, and more effective culturally blended society.
Predicting the pandemic
Hopeton has published other works of literature besides The Two Faces of A Bag Poet and Planet One Drop, which he describes as a futuristic Rastaman’s science fiction, makes it to the list as the most difficult book he’s ever written having relied upon his scientific background to have pulled through. His idea for the book evolved over thirty years ago but its plot is now hitting very close to home as it covers the COVID pandemic with a virus he termed in the book as COVID-Gem.
While other authors would surely be thinking of writing about the coronavirus pandemic in the coming months (if they haven’t done so already), Hopeton may have seemingly predicted it 30 years before it even occured. He says, “The [2020] pandemic allowed me to polish the story to what we know now…I also included the [wearing of] masks and the bubble that exists now. I take it as my idea, all that is happening now. The other authors would be trying to catch up with what is happening now, somehow I had a vision.”
Speaking of the pandemic, how has he been spending his ‘pandemic time’ so far? This whole COVID-19 experience can either give artists like him material and inspiration or burn up their motivation. Fortunately for him, it has all been well spent. He has been “socially distanced” a few years before the dreaded pandemic, the whole quarantine and isolation issue is nothing new to him.
Now retired and back in Jamaica where he inherited a five-acre farm, he relates: “I live on a five acre bushy woodland and my few neighbors are far away. I am inspired by the fresh air and lush green landscape so I am able to think clearly. I am able to revise my works with the new information that comes to my notice like the COVID-19 as a worldwide lockdown catastrophe, for example.”
Despite deciding to settle back home in North America, his heart will always have a soft spot for Australia. “I still have strong Aussie connections because I am a citizen. [In the first place,] Australia attracts me because they promote a multicultural society. The climate is good and the opportunity is encouraging. In general, the people are nice, the infrastructure and transport facility is fantastic. The city of Sydney is modern, exciting and large.”
Now that he has more time in his hands, he remembers his early relationship with books. Although he came from a poor family, the propensity was bent towards learning and books. “My father would read to me and my mother always read the Bible. My friends loved reading comics and when I went to the neighbours I would read my friends books.”
During his early teens, he and his peers frequented the local library to get the next copy of the Hardy Boys and Enid Blyton. “The first book I read of Enid Blyton was a prize, The Boy Next Door,” the self-confessed philosopher and thinker reveals.
Accepting criticisms graciously
“My aim is to find a bonafide publisher, I wish to be a mainstream author,” is Hopeton’s reply when asked of his plans for the near future, maintaining that the five-book catalogue he has built up is “good enough for an entry.” Carefully planning his next career move, he is clearly motivated to write more — at least five more books, he says — and get them published. This author would not mind earning some cash for his works as it would “satisfy my creative ego,” he says.
What made him decide to go the independent publishing route in the first place? Well, he thought it was a way to showcase his works to agents and mainstream publishers, standing firm of his belief that it was “encouraging, straightforward and easier than being rejected all the time for sending unsolicited material.” All his self-published books are stepping stones for him, a humble start that can at least get him one step closer into the mainstream market, compounded by active presence in social media and common group discussions. Also, it was never a good feeling for him having work rejected by mainstream publishers. Nevertheless, the rejection made him a better writer, turning out as a blessing in disguise. He recalls, “My writing skill improved over the years. I decided to self-publish instead, trying to find another path.”
“Self-publishing has lifted my game,” he says, sounding optimistic. He has taken proactive steps to establish himself across all major social media platforms. He has shown the public he knows how to write, sell and market his work. He has published regularly in the last few years that he has built up a strong catalogue of books. He has put it out on Amazon and libraries in various locations, as well as distributed copies among his friends and family. As a result, he is pleased to “get noticed with various people enquiring about my published books.”
Having only recently partnered with Stampa for author support services, Hopeton is full of hope [no pun intended] that it will lead to something bigger, keeping his goals focused ahead while staying rooted in the here and now. He expounds, “New broom sweeps clean, nothing has happened yet for me to feel satisfied…This is like taking a girl on a first date and falling in love, it happens rarely…Nothing has materialized as yet; early days, my friend.”
Running a big part of his career as a novelist has made Hopeton realize the most important aspect of writing a book is not how fast you can turn a profit, instead it is the level of your persistence and dedication. He believes making money in the arts is a lifelong pursuit and understands that many artists do not live long enough to see the fruits of their labor. “It would be unfair to expect money right away. Most people like myself started writing as a hobby and [only] later became serious,” he says. Now he is ready to expand, to spread his wings and embrace the break he has long been waiting for.
One thing he enjoys so much is engaging with his readers, adding: “I am a performer [under the stage] name Starman, I love meeting people, that is my joy. I also enjoy promoting my books. I tell everyone [about them] with glee wherever I may be. Being on stage with my music was an extension.”
Hopeton has also reached out to the market by getting some of his books into different libraries in Sydney while he was there — a very witty move that he himself carried out without the might of a traditional publisher’s marketing team, agent, or PR team. Here’s how he did it: “I bought my own copies of the books for promotional purposes. Meeting my readers and reading to them gives me a thrill and a buzz of accomplishment.”
This Jamacan-born engineer cum artist is not so much into reading his books’ online reviews only because, “I don’t know where to access this information.” The critique from readers is constant, he says, but makes him stronger and even more determined to prove them wrong in their judgment. He rides well with criticism and knows how to take negative feedback in stride. “Most times the critics have a point. All I have to do is to listen and be humble, then make the necessary corrections and thrive for improvement.” Nope, this guy does not let criticism burst his creative bubble.
At rare times when he feels creatively stuck, he willingly takes a break and pursues other interests. “I have other things to do. I am good at woodwork furniture-making as my father was a carpenter. I play scrabble by myself and work on my little woodland which occupies [much of] my time.” He has not entirely given up his engineering foundation: He continues to earn from designing and planning residential homes, and manages small constructions in local communities in Jamaica. He rarely gets bored and enjoys his own company, spending long periods alone — thanks to his British upbringing [wink, wink]. He adds, “Rarely am I stuck, but in reality I need to be pushed.”
There’s no doubt that today’s modern lifestyle can be stressful. To help you recover from everyday stresses that life throws at you, you need to find time to relax. It’s important that, after a gruelling day, you sit and appreciate your achievements and efforts to feel grounded. Hopeton makes sure his days belong to him: “I might watch a movie on YouTube or play scrabble or do the crossword while sinking a stiff drink. I might then relax with a friend or two.”
Stress may be a universal part of life, but that does not mean you should let it get a full hold of you. Remember, those little pauses relax and recenter yourself; there is more joy in living.
FAST TALK WITH HOPETON GRAY
Stampa: How do you manage to fit writing in with the demands of your time? Are you good at time management?
Hopeton: My time is unlimited so there is no demand on me to write because so far, I have been going around in circles so I am not that motivated about writing. I have so much material that I don’t know what to do with. I write because I push myself now and again. I do things quick because I am efficient and I do produce when there is a need or a demand. My time management is very good. As a lone soldier, I have navigated myself all my life along with a few mentors along the way.
S: What keeps you busy when you’re not writing?
H: I am like a philosopher. I spend much of my time thinking, meditating and thinking about all sorts of things. Maybe I am psychic because all sorts of images come to the fore so I work on vibration. I don’t spend that much time writing because I find other things to occupy my time. I mingle with people and I find many other interests to occupy my time. I answer my mail and try to keep abreast with current affairs. I am interested in sports so I listen to cricket and soccer on the sports radio station. I live in the bush on a mountain top so I spend much of my time alone, but I am never lonely.
S: When did you begin writing in a serious way, and what motivated that?
H: Writing became serious during my Masters of Engineering Science candidature. It took two years to reach an acceptable level of writing. Once I reached that required threshold, I then soared, the result then is the five novels I have published independently. I went to various editors seeking feedback, also from friends and those who cared. I kept on trying with various revisions and giving away free copies of my books. I was also able to distribute a few books to many libraries around the world. I wanted to succeed; that was my motivation. I was born to entertain and I am still trying to reach that commercial level when I can say I am now an accredited author.
S: What was life like in Jamaica? Tell us of your happiest memories and your struggles in your home country?
H: My life in Jamaica was fun and sunshine looking from the point of view as a child. I was in school to the age of fifteen and I was an accomplished athlete and good academically. So I was popular among my peers and I grew up with that confidence. My happiest moment was when I became champion boy at my school, Montego Bay Senior School which is now St. James High School. My struggles were a mere routine. I like earning a buck so I had various part-time jobs, as well as some self- enterprising ventures that earned me some money. I am good at making things like toy sailing boats, gigs, kites and other things. My mother raised six of us without a father. He was crippled and died when I was eleven years old. That is why my sister, who was in the UK studying nursing, took me to finish my schooling when I was just fifteen.
S: In this time of a pandemic, what do you think are the best ways to promote your book?
H: Jamaica is big on books and there are many schools and institutions. What we need is a local agent and book distributor to get the books in the various places of learning. I am a Jamaican, it would catch on. Jamaicans are proud people. They are happy with their heroes. The media (TV and radio) is always there to take charge or assist. In Australia, hopefully the book would spread like wildfire especially among the young Aborigines. I have already made a name for myself in Sydney. Virtual contacts via the web is also a possibility. Also, a few libraries in London have my book, I sent a copy to various places.
S: Can you give some advice to young, aspiring writers?
H: The road is long and winding but one should follow one’s dream. There will be many hitches and much criticism but one must keep going beyond those things. Try and be proactive reading your works to an audience, that exposure will improve one’s work. There will be a lot of rejections, even insults, but one should still continue to achieve one’s ambition of being a recognized writer. It is a rocky road but the impossible can be possible, the darkest part of the night is just before dawn.
S: Is ‘THE BLOCK’ a real notorious inner city in Australia? Are/were you from this neighbourhood?
H: The Block is a dangerous place especially at night. Eveleigh Street is famous in Sydney where the brothers hang out just opposite Redfern Station. Most people just pass through. I lived in that neighbourhood for many years. There is a balance because a few yuppies live there and they are good residential streets around the same vicinity but the houses are expensive.
S: In your opinion, are writers born or made? Why?
H: I believe writers are made and to a certain extent born, destined. From when I was born I was artistic and creative, but I did not know I would become a writer. I dabbled from an early age, from early teens I always wanted to write a novel and I tried. I went to England when I was 15 and I liked English and English literature at school. Mr. Scott was my English teacher, a very stern English man but fair. I learned through him. preparing my master’s thesis was also a learning curve for me on taking writing seriously. Writers are made and getting into writing depends on many factors.
S: Some say silence is racism and that to be neutral is to also be racist. If you are not fighting actively against racism then you’re part of the problem. Do you agree and why?
H: Say nothing and do nothing constitute no liability they say. I don’t agree some people don’t want to be involved in a melee. Some people might be staunch advocates of racism and being neutral or being silent is their way of dealing with the racism issue.