There were Rastas before Garvey's time; and during his time many were pro-Black, 'Back to Africa' Rastas.

I have said many times on this board that I know Rastafarians who do not think of Selassie as divine. I know Rastafarians who remained pro-Black African and as far as they are concerned, they are only worshiping Jah through what they understand of nature.

If others do not know this I will not fault them too much; but their concept of Rasta is not universal.

I definitely understand and appreciate the points made here. We had this reasoning before, although worded differently, and it got more heated than this.

When I first checked Rasta Websites years ago, it was obvious that most of the websites were white owned. They mostly peddled Selassie speeches and used them in the same way as fundamentalist Christians. They were not interested in Black African issues. There were no challenges to white privileges. They operated as if claiming Rastafari meant that racism was over. So of course white Rastas were setting the pace and the few blacks I observed were following.

You use the terms 'Garvey Rasta' and 'Selassie Rasta' and if people were not so defensive they would immediately see what you are saying. It is not like they can accuse you of not being pro-African so they raise their defenses. You are simply saying that there are Rastas who are not into appeasing whites and remain with the firm 'Back to Africa' position, and there is another set who want to act as if race issues are over. They feel they can claim black experiences based on the lighter-skin, mixed appearance of Selassie that blacks embraced. Some of Selassie speeches do appease them. They conveniently forget that Selassie was a politician.

I rather suspect that those who do not get the point you are making are not dark-skinned Blacks; they may be light-skinned mixed or whites, and are being overly defensive as usual.

You are pointing out what every dark-skinned Black should know; that most people who are not dark-skinned black are blind to colorism. Although you spelt it out, the reactions of some show that they want to obfuscate the obvious truth.