Racism’s grown exponentially since it was invented in Asia and Europe before being exported to other places. Globally, it also has precipitated problems almost in all aspects of contemporary life economically, politically and socially. Further, racism has become another global pandemic that needs to be seriously addressed before creating more problems. I decided to write this piece after one teacher in my locality kindly questions and satirically addresses racism as an endemic and systemic global and local problem. The person was asking if white people might be racist consciously or unconsciously based on how they view some of us who were not born in the West, and if we did, we’ve more melanin than our hosts who see us as foreigners because of that. However, two things, inter alia, defined this phenomenon in the year 2020 as far as global racism nature is concerned. Before the two occasions, racism was there but no collective world efforts were ever exerted against ever since apartheid South Africa was brought down in early 90s not to mention American one. The two things that redefined racism globally are COVID-19 and the death of an American George Floyd in Minnesota in the US resulting from endemic and systemic police brutality and racial discrimination that defines the situation in the West in general. Thus, rekindling the struggle that Black American movement known as Black Lives Matter (BLM). This movement’s been active for a long time. However, this time around, it became bold and vocal so as to cross borders and oceans globally and became a world phenomenon. There is BLM in every continent currently to signify the endemicity of the phenomenon as far as the West and other non-African countries are concerned. It is only in Africa where BLM does not exist simply because Africans do not discriminate white or brown people though in South Africa they discriminate against their black brethren.
Regarding racism, the two happenings have something in common as far as embedded systemic racism is concerned. Floyd was killed by a white cop, Derek Chauvin simply because he was allegedly black despite other things connected to his case. I’m using the word allegedly because we can’t for a fact say that the motive behind this brutal death was the pigment of the colour of the victim, especially if we underscore the fact that there are some narratives that the two knew each other. Circumstantially though the colour of the victims is the motive simply because such killings have been replicated in many places on black people in the west where the authorities seem to turn a blind eye to this recidivism. We don’t know if Floyd did actually commit any offence. For, no court did look into his matter. He thus died an innocent person under the presumption of the innocence as guaranteed by the law locally and internationally. Up until now, we don’t know if Floyd, if he were white, would have died in the same manner he did. Again, we rely on the examples of others who died in the same manner in the hands of the same white cops in the US and elsewhere. Similarly, we don’t know if Chauvin were black would have done what he did. We don’t know how Chauvin felt when he was squeezing life out of Floyd. Though the footings showed that he was acting normally as if he was doing a normal thing for a cop to do. Evidentially, looking at many clips that surfaced after Floyd’s death, we can comfortably posit that his colour––not the offence[s] he is alleged to have committed, if there’s any––was the root cause of his heartless and despicable death.
As for COVID-19, it came to light that blacks and other minority are likely to die in bigger numbers than white not only in the US but in the west in general, which shows how endemic and systemic racism is as far as the pandemic is concerned. Despite that, we can push the envelope in this matter. In concurring with this assertion Bibbins-Domingo (2020) notes that Black males were 4.2 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than White males and Black women were 4.3 times more likely to die than White women in the UK. These risks do not apply to Black ethnicity alone. For, people of Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, and Mixed ethnicities also had statistically significant raised risk of death involving COVID-19 compared with those of White ethnicity. I don’t know how the situation is in Africa when it comes to COVID-19 deaths along colour lines. On colour politics, before the eyes of white racist, whoever is not white is black. Some have added another qualification based on their black-white duality namely, people of colour that includes all who are not white.
Essentially, the above observation is representative of the real situation almost in everything, as prior noted, be it economic, political and social. If anything, this is a colonial legacy the world has made do with for many decades. Considering the nature of racism in this context, one can start understanding what it means to either be black or white as it was socially constructed in the west for the purpose of bullying and exploiting non-white. I’ve italicized white simply because it is a social construction aims at empowering one and disempowering others. For, white is snow, milk and the likes but not otherwise as far as my myopic lens is concerned. Disclaimer, the author of this piece doesn’t know if he is colour blind or not. Importantly, he’s sure he is colour conscious just like anybody else save that he might be unconscious of being a racist just like some of racists.
Historically and realistically, racism is the product of universal collective ignorance and perpetual mental diseases be they personal or systemic. We can point at collective Delusional Disorders, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Paranoia, psychosis among other mental ailment associated with racism behaviours. Let me offer an exemplification revolving around a metaphor in order to simplify and put it in the context. Everybody, if not many, know the animals I’m going to use in this metaphor. They are common as pets or foods to most of the people globally. Put another way, critically look at a cow, dog or goat even a rabbit. Ask yourself. Do they smell putrid? Do they brush their teeth every morning like humans do? Do they shower every now and then compared to human beings? Do we discriminate against them? To know who’s superior in this scenario, forget about what’s inculcated in your heads through colonial and criminal education. Are we better than other creatures? Who’s destroying the world today comparably? Do insects need us to live or vice versa; not to mention other nonhuman creatures we, out of our ignorance, like to refer to as beasts? Who need between beasts and humans? Just imagine what’d happen if humans and those animals above exchange their lifestyles. Who will be who? It is obvious that animals are superior to humans when it comes living without depending on sanitary services. Again, because of sickness of the mind, racists don’t compare themselves with those they discriminate. They forget that we’re who we are not because of our abilities to be who we’re. Racists, because of the disease of the mind, don’t know or concur to the fact that our differences are not human engineering as racism is but are beyond our abilities, choices and control.
Why is it possible to discriminate against the human like yourself but not against an animal that isn’t closely related with you? Don’t people love animals more than their colleague humans simply because of colour differentials? Can sane people do this without realizing that such a take is completely ridiculous and inhuman; not to mention how it openly testifies to the mental sickness and ignorance I’m putting forth in this lucubration? We all are witnesses. Animals of the same species do not discriminate against each other. Elephants, when seeing an enemy, will cooperate to protect the vulnerable. As well, buffaloes will do the same when they see a lion or face any threat. For such reasons and others, that’s why I’m saying that we need to love and educate racists so that we can cure their disease, fear and hatred. That’s why it is very important not to hate racists. Instead, we need to love, assure and educate them so that they can release the fear and ignorance that have become a social pandemic as it currently is exhibited in anomalies such as road rage and the likes. I think this approach is more constructive and peaceful than other violent means whether they’re applied by the perpetrators or the victims. For, at the end of the day, both the perpetrators and victims become the victims of racism however in different manners. Importantly, the duo faces the same dilemma when it comes to lack peace and insecurity resulting from racism. They’re all vulnerable in this manner. They all need peace and security that they lack because of the fear and hatred they’ve towards each other individually and collectively. Underscoring this fact, we, as advanced and civilized and modern humans, need to come together to fight racism as a disease and a sign of ignorance of each other. In doing so, we’d not pathologize the way of doing so.
Source: African Executive Magazine today.
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