There is so much going on in the world right now! I took a couple of days off social media posting, not just because of the #blacklivesmatter2020 movement, but simply because it was so overwhelming.
I am very conscious that our thoughts are not just thoughts for a fleeting moment. They create words, which have life. I have become increasingly aware of that ever since reading the book, The Power of Your Mind by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome. If you haven’t read the book yet, in short: you need to!
So, back to what I was saying; I’ve been actively strengthening my mind and not creating a self-fulfilling prophecy scenario of what is going on regarding our beautiful black race in the US (and other parts of the world). It has been so painful to watch some of the videos and see how, in 2020, in a time when we have so much at our disposal (technology, opportunity and greater wisdom), there are still those who think the suppression of black people is right and justified.
It is not.
One of the reasons why this has been so painful to watch is because, until I started working, I hadn’t experienced racism at all. Or at least I thought this to be the case.
It was in the latter stages of my full-time working in the media that I understood that I had been experiencing racism. Still, the racist acts were delivered in such a covert and inconspicuous manner that to give examples of it wasn’t easy. And in the workplace, examples are the real proof of something happening. If you can’t give an example, you can feel as if you have no proof. Feeling unable to find evidence is probably why so much of it goes unreported. I know a lot of black professionals likely don’t report it because they think the examples they have won’t stand up or will look like they are just calling the race card. I believe this is how racism has become so engrained in all institutions in the West, to the point that the perpetrators feel they are not racist. But they often are.
These days, to openly call someone a ‘black x’ (fill in the x with whatever insult) is clearly racist and sanction worthy, which is why only the brazen racists do it. But racism is not just about the physical acts of choking or killing a person because of the colour of their skin, or the words thrown.
Racism is when: you think someone is beneath you because of their colour; when you think they are too stupid to know what you are doing because they are black; when you exclude them because they are black; when you include them because they are black; when you hate a person you don’t even know because they are black; when you do all the things you would not accept being done to your race to a person of colour because they are black.
The very fact that we identify black people as being black is an act of racism. Can we start there?
Let’s all stay strong and conscious. Let’s positively confess a change is coming and keep raising awareness.