Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com The 35-year-old Kingston native who obviously sees nothing wrong with such practices, likened skin lightening to straightening your hair or getting a tan—guess he failed to realize neither of those processes is permanent. In a statement to Vibe.com, he was rather straight forward about his thoughts on the backlash: “When black women stop straightening their hair and wearing wigs and weaves, when white women stop getting lip and butt injections and implants, when bald men stop getting hair transplants, and when people stop getting nose jobs and cosmetic surgery then I’ll stop using the ‘cakesoap’ and we’ll all live naturally ever after. Until then screw you all.” Still, it would be one thing if we could just wrap Kartel up in a self-hating black man box and throw him away but his actions are a part of a much larger trend occurring on the island. In 2007, the Jamaican government reportedly ran a Don’t Kill the Skin campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of skin-lightening products and Jamaican health authorities have stated that local doctors are dealing with increasing numbers of patients who have burnt their skin with black-market bleaching products. It does not help the cause to have a prominent entertainer advocating such physically and mentally harmful behavior.