[dropcap]B[/dropcap]efore now, they were given no harmless jobs and tasks; they were technically paid, most times in brass wire that doesn’t near the pole of worthiness. While that of a white man’s is valued, their overall safety and health weren’t put into consideration, with utmost disregard towards humankind. It was very clear; they were dying slowly since they were used for harmful and harder tasks on the field. Yet, they weren’t enemies or criminals with the white fowls.
They were niggers and savages, lost in inhospitable surroundings in dark-thick skin; lying blankly in the greenish misery; fed on unfamiliar food, and were allowed to crawl away and rest in a controversial manner. Unlike those behind the northern walls, they were mocked openly and tagged “black shadows” of disease, illness, and starvation without much discourse on the phrase – humanity comes first. Here we are, living in a globally interconnected world, where the subject of racism should be a thing of the past, and yet, it still exists in a more civilized society like ours.
To stop replicating racial difference, we need not impair and weaken our capability of harvesting peace and unity amongst us. I had watched with dismay, the video twerking on cyberspace as he, George Floyd took his last breath at the hands of four police officers. With one of the officer’s knee pinned on his back neck region like a ram waiting to be slaughtered. “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe’ were repeatedly his last words with his hands clasped behind him. The caged soul no longer sings aloud – the knee on his throat – he was gone silently under the footage.
At the height of modernity – the anger, the frustration and the hate we see playing out in the streets of America is a stark reality of how small we have grown as humans from our original sense of slavery and oppression. Yes, that is it.
From the corridors of the westerners towards non-westerners – It has existed throughout human history with its happenings and influenced documented in discoveries. The belief that human traits and capacities are primarily determined by biological race and that some races are superior to others is a myopic-like thinking process. An unrounded tool that includes prejudice or hatred directed at someone because of their color, ethnicity, or national origin, herein requires a call for eradication.
There is a bold and rebellious reaction; demonstrations are being taken in nook and cranny of the world. Racism is a pandemic that has continually infected all of us, and for the time been, it has no vaccine. The United Nations convention commits its members on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the promotion of understanding among all races. The convention requires its parties to outlaw hate speech and criminalize memberships in racist organizations. At some points between human and social interactions, the subject is being invited with a clear notion of bringing into reminder – the superiority of one and the inferiority of the other. Who does that? Human or a classify robot?
Before us, is a great and profound new duty, which is to bring into replacement, the ignorance that has beclouded and destroyed the human sense of reasoning with the true knowledge of co-existent; Even in the face of multicultural diversity where America’s society depicts a lead role, it is necessary we design and embrace unity at every entrance of our borders that has heartlessly torn apart on the falsehood fundamentals of color, religion, race, nationality, age, and gender. With such, it is very possible to heal with unconditional affection those souls whose hearts have been brutally disfigured by hatred, loneliness, and despotism.
The actions and reactions are tractable to widespread human defectiveness, which could be chiefly ascribed to the myriads of abnormalities and negativities in inhumane characteristics, therein inducing prevalent chaos, disorderliness, and uproar among the populace, as we have seen twerking on the international screen within the boundaries of the USA.
In line with the present realities, it is not sufficient to simply put in writing by explaining the love shared between people of all colors and styles. Hence, it is damaging to never make the leap of reaching out to others on account of a different race; yet, we proclaim love as the most powerful tool between us. The world is full of empty rhetoric, which necessitates our action to symbolize and express the belief we all claim to hold. Still, it is not sufficient to tell both the younger ones and the generation to come that racism orchestrated and championed by racists are heinous and bad, without stuttering repeatedly.
Even in the realm of fallibility and imperfections, the sense of human and social psychology is to be fully adopted and embraced, as it will allow deep and positive thoughts to surface towards contentment as a means of peace of mind. Whether one is Black, White, Brown, or the likes – human feelings should be recognized and comprehend as a page-one factor, in pricking the conscience in soundness and rationality and guide sane minds towards the peaceful co-existent and habitation of the other without racial torture and abuse.
The world is no longer watching with bated breath, as the struggle to curb the preponderance of such derogatory subject matter had reached a newer phase and dimension, where our peaceful demonstrations are needed than ever under the cloud hovering above, and the frequency of our voice, escaping into the high heavens. As one of the placards reads “Black lives matter” – If you believe in that cause as I do, be willing to stand up for that cause with a million people or by yourself. Indeed, silence is violence.
Meduoye Adeyinka writes from Lagos, you could reach him by HERE.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
