It is difficult to believe that the United States has returned to its full racial antecedents; times when the colour of one’s skin mattered in every sphere. As a Nigerian, I worry about profiling. I am concerned about some airport officials in European countries treating black persons badly. I have been a victim several times.
Airport official: Sorry you are on the wrong cue
Me: No I am not.
Airport Official: Please step aside ma’am. May I see your ticket?
Then I present the ticket and then there is a surprise.
Airport official: So sorry ma’am, you may go ahead now.
At the point, I am at the point of wanting to punch the silly looking woman. In her small mind, there is no way I can afford a business class ticket so what am I doing on the privileged cue. This is me in the environment where I don’t live, where my relationship with any other race is minimal. I live in Nigeria where we are all one colour even if we are not homogenous. It is still better. Discrimination is based on other variables i.e ethnicity, religion and even gender.
As human beings we tend to do good only to those similar or familiar to us. Until we can go past these things, we are still deluded in Nigeria.
Let us return to the U.S where race relations has been a huge issue since the Atlantic slave trade. Blacks have never been good enough. The Kuklux klan have always believed the Aryan race is better and there is institutional racism everywhere you turn.
My difficulty has always been why nothing has changed. Can you imagine living in a country where the colour of your skin continues to dog you and your children all your life? Can you imagine what it is like to be in a system that perpetually gives a group of people an edge over you?
I urge you to read Maya Angelou’s I know why the caged birds sing to see racism stripped bare. I need you to watch Roots again currently showing on PayTV re-done, brutal; sitting on the edge TV, about man’s inhumanity in the slave trade era. It is so well done that my 16 year old cousin is not sure if she wants to ever speak to any white person again. The feelings run deep and she is not even American. America is again showing us its ugly racial entrails and all things are going poof in the dying months of Obama’s presidency. I have often wondered if white supremacists are not the unseen hand in the unfortunate incidences in the U.S in an attempt to undo Obama’s legacy and shut the door to any black man ever aspiring to the highest position in the land. So much for “Land of Liberty”! It is this double speak that has set the suicidal black youths killing police men in the U.S.
“We are in a war situation”, a young black guy said on TV two nights ago, “And we need to protect ourselves against the police. So I have a firearm and it is legal in this state”.
The reporter looked at him and asked if this is not going to escalate the violence and he said, “No, guns don’t shoot people. People do”. The sorry state of the U.S is going to take some doing to mend if even at all. There is too much going on that needs healing, caution, patience, understanding. These are not words that families where children have suffered police brutality and in some cases assassination can understand. It is time for America to tell themselves the home truth as Obama elegantly said at a memorial for the five police men killed in Dallas. Suspicion and denial will not take anyone anywhere. #Black LivesMatter #PoliceLivesAlsoMatter
While the Police/African American war is raging in the U.S, Turkey is in a war all by itself. Internal strife, a failed coup, terrorist threats and a government that needs to introspect. Syria remains a constant narrative; migrants continue to die on the high seas escaping wars and poverty in their countries. Back home, the war in our North-eastern zone affects us all. Boko Haram, Niger Delta Avengers, Biafra, are all throwing darts at innocent citizens and claiming to want to help us all.
Within our families there is continuous internal wrangling, sisters not speaking with each other for years, parents at war with their children etcetera. Something has to be wrong with a world that is not quiet, not peaceful so much so one of my children is no longer interested in watching international news because she says only sad news is found therein. As if this is not enough, people are fighting their colleagues at work for no sensible reason and friends are at daggers drawn. Meanwhile the sudden death of loved ones and family suggest that it’s not worth it but do we learn?
What does the Bible say about end times again…
Do your best to bring a smile to another! Let us pray
Eugenia Abu
