Why The Plea To End Racism is Laughable

The plea and conscious effort to end racism is one that dates back to the ’90s and even tho we’ve seen progress so far, racism is still deep-rooted in our society.

As a black man, the idea of being treated equally and showed support and love just like everyone else sounds really great to me just as every other black person but that also really sounds funny to me regardless and before you write me off as a black guy with ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, just sit back and let me explain to you why the whole thing really sounds laughable to me.

Blacks hate themselves way more than other races

As a young Nigerian Igbo guy who spent most of his childhood in Nigeria, I didn’t have to go abroad or watch movies first before experiencing discrimination or get an idea of what it feels like because I had a first-hand experience right in my own country and not by a foreigner but by my own people.

One thing that I really can’t understand and appears really funny to me is how a Yoruba/Igbo/Hausa person sees nothing wrong in harboring hatred for Nigerian people of different tribe or religion but when this same person goes abroad and gets the slightest mistreatment from a white person they cry ‘foul’ and crave for love and acceptance from the whites but this same person/people will return back home and hate his/her fellow race because they are from different tribe or religion.

Last year, in Lagos Nigeria, a foreigner ordered 4 Nigerian soldiers to torture a Nigerian woman in Nigeria and she was badly tortured by the Nigerian soldiers in her own country (see full story HERE!), I mean! How can you take these type of people seriously? Let’s also look at the Xenophobia issue in South Africa and how only Africans are the ones being beaten, killed and thrown out of the country whereas there are people of other races in that same country living comfortably despite the chaos. Not once, not twice but on several occasions, I’ve been in a place with my fellow African friends and have seen them collectively laugh/make jokes about the color of another African who is way darker than them and these same people want racism to end completely in the society. The circle of inter-hatred in Nigeria or in fact Africa as a whole is one big and interconnected circle. We have Africans hating other Africans because they are from a different tribe, a different religion, social status, and so many other differences.

Take some time and study businesses in Nigeria and you will weep and might want to conclude that we deserve all the racial treatment that we get sometimes. For the Nigerian businessman doing big business in Nigeria, it is almost as if all hands are on deck to see you fail. As a businessman in Nigeria, there are two groups that you need to find favor in their sight in order to succeed (1) The Government, for favorable rules and system to boost your business (2) The consumers, to prefer and choose your product(s)/services over your competitors. Take a look at the consumers, the average Nigerian look at foreign products as the superior one and will hurriedly purchase a product on hearing that the product was made abroad and imported to Nigeria and even manufacturers who make their goods in Nigeria, go to the extent of lying that the product was made abroad just to make consumers purchase their product and somehow, this same group of people wants their country/continent to flourish (LOL!). The government on the other hand, with some amount of cash/bribe changing hands, will a favor a foreigner over a Nigerian business person and will create a conducive business environment for the foreigner which will leave the local business person disadvantaged and trust me this has happened on several occasions. I stayed and studied in India and an Indian picking a foreigner over an Indian is something that can almost never happen. When we don’t love, support and respect ourselves first then how can we expect others to do so?

Every first of October in Nigeria, Nigerians gather together to celebrate independence and freedom from the British and as I watch the news with disdain and see the parade on Independence Day, I ask myself “As a people, Are we really free/independent?” They say ‘The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he is in prison’. I won’t want to bore you with details but if you observe the behavior of the average Nigerian and the government, 1st October might not strike you as a day to celebrate anymore.

The Way Forward

Have you ever been in a relationship where you lost complete interest in your partner? I’m sure a good number of people have been in such a situation before and you know for sure that no matter how much your partner cries out and begs for your love, it most likely won’t change a thing and will even make you lose interest the more. How about we take a minute to look at the racism that way! I hate to say it but one race which has been complaining very much and crying out about racism is we the blacks.

The Asians also use to experience a proportionate amount of racism and they weren’t as loud as we are now and complaining all the time but they just went on to work on themselves and look at them right now, gaining acceptance and admiration rapidly without necessarily having to beg for it. The CEO of Google right now is an Indian/Asian ‘Sundar Pichai’, the CEO of Microsoft also an Indian/American ‘Satya Nadella’, in the G7 countries we also got an Asian country ‘Japan’ on the list and also China is on the list of most powerful countries in the world and going through these lists, you’ll wonder why despite all the resources and vibrant labor force in Africa yet we don’t make any of these top lists.

Now, what can we learn from that as a people? As I suggested earlier, we should take a minute to look at racism as a relationship where one partner is no longer interested. Now imagine that your partner who might be toxic or out of shape, starts to work on himself/herself and becomes super hot, discards his/her toxic traits and starts to pursue his/her dreams and becomes financially independent, what do you think will happen in this case? I can assure you that there will be a 95% chance of this person gaining the love of his/her partner back and not just gaining back the love but also winning his/her respect and admiration.

The way forward for Africa is, first of all, to unite as one and love each other first irrespective of our differences before wanting to be loved collectively by others. We have to work on ourselves in terms of our productivity, skills, resource management, Infrastructure, unity, and many other aspects, then only can we slowly put an end to racism and not by complaining all the time. The complaints have lingered for so long and yet racism hasn’t come to an end. In the bible, God himself created division/confusion among the people building the tower of Babel when he saw how united they were and that goes to show that even God knows that division is one great way to stop a great group from achieving a common goal. It is time for Africa to unite!

I hope you’ve learned something from this article today and will make some changes in the way you interact and treat your fellow Africans. Don’t forget to share this article with your friends and let’s spread the message as far as we can and hopefully the dream of making Africa great becomes a reality.