There is a jealousy in Jamaica that too often dresses itself in education and respectability. You hear it whenever an artist speaks about the condition of the country. Before certain people even consider what was said, they rush to remind us who they believe is qualified to speak.

“He is dunce.” “He is mad.” “Stick to music.”

Apparently, we are intelligent enough to entertain the world, but too stupid to question the people governing our own country.

For a people descended largely from enslaved Africans, education represented a road toward freedom, dignity and opportunity. Our ancestors hungered for what had been denied to them. That hunger deserves respect. But how did something meant to liberate us become a weapon some of us use to belittle one another?

Some people wear their qualifications as though they are titles of ownership over everybody else’s intelligence. They mistake speaking polished English for having sound judgment. They mistake a position for an accomplishment. And they look at the artist, especially the artist from a poor community, as someone who must always remain beneath them.

Then that same artist creates something the world wants.

A song. A sound. A way of expressing life that travels beyond Jamaica and reaches people who may never have heard a single speech from our Parliament.

Music is a product. Writing is work. Composition requires intelligence. Performance requires discipline. Building a career from an idea requires imagination, judgment and persistence. Yet some people speak about artists as though we accidentally stumbled into having a skill.

You cannot celebrate Jamaica’s cultural influence while treating the people who create it as intellectual inferiors.

And to those who measure everybody by certificates and titles, let us turn the examination around: what have you created? What have you built? What original work have you put into the world? If you are going to dismiss creators as useless or stupid, explain the contribution that gives you such confidence.

Do not show us your title. Show us your work.

An artist can take an experience from a neglected community and turn it into something people across the world understand. Meanwhile, a person with an impressive résumé can sit in an important office and still fail to answer an ordinary citizen’s straightforward question.

Why must the artist prove intelligence before speaking, while the official is presumed intelligent even when the explanation makes no sense?

Andrew Holness, his supporters, his critics and every person holding public office should be open to questions from the people. An artist does not surrender citizenship upon entering a recording studio. We live with the consequences of government decisions. We have families, pay bills and watch what happens in our communities. We have every right to speak.

Disagree with an artist’s argument. Challenge the evidence. Point out an error. But calling someone “dunce” because you cannot tolerate who is asking the question exposes your prejudice. It does not establish your intelligence.

I respect education. I went to college myself. What I reject is the belief that formal education gives anyone exclusive ownership of reason, insight or the right to be heard.

Jamaica needs educated people who can build, creators who can think, and citizens willing to hold both accountable. What keeps dividing us is the insistence that one group must remain above another—even when the people being looked down upon are producing work that carries Jamaica’s name across the world.

Some people love the artist when the artist makes Jamaica look good. The moment that artist asks why Jamaicans are suffering, suddenly the artist must know his place.

That is the arrogance we need to confront.

Education should give you more to contribute. If all it gives you is another reason to look down on your own people, then you have confused learning with superiority.

Niggy boy graduates University, and about 10 more artist have degrees.- Stfu