Racism is for real

“You’ve become darker”

‘’Don’t stay too long in the sun otherwise you will get darker’’

‘’Dingy lips’’

Those are some statements I have heard so many times. Apart from these undertones, I, and every other black child had been conditioned from birth to feel inferior about our features.

Every supermarket carried bleaching brands: from covert ‘toning’ creams to straight up ‘get rid of your blackness because it’s ugly’ creams. Every black celebrity was unbelievably light skinned, with slim noses and small lips.

The most painful memory I have of the effects of colourism I remember was when my nephew asked me, ‘’ what is actually wrong with this black skin?” This is a question that I suspect majority of black kids have asked. It is a testament of the destructiveness of the colourism that takes place in the society, so much so that the word ‘light skinned’ is synonymous to attractive.

Blackness is regarded as an affliction that should be corrected if possible. And corrected it is from the thousands of women who apply bleaching creams (although they are aware that it may potentially destroy their skin. To them there is nothing worse than being black), to the thousands who relax their hair (I’m guilty of this as I used to do this but I understand some do it for easy maintenance, but….), from the makeup tutorials that show blacks how to slim their noses, to the filters that lighten pictures

ON THE BRIGHTSIDE, this is not the time to dwell on negativity. Instead I wrote it to exalt at the new found love and acceptance that I and many other black women have discovered. The eschewal of self-hate and skin negativity is the direct result of knowledge and awareness: The knowledge of why colourism, which is concomitant to racism, exists. It has been a journey for me, especially coming from Africa where I didn’t need to think about my skin colour in the same way I am doing in Europe.

No skin colour is better than the other. No physical feature of one race is more attractive than those of another, there are only standards, put in place by the white man. But why were they created, why was so much effort put in depressing all coloured races. To stroke their egos perhaps, or just because of their spiteful nature, but it is neither. Money and power are the strongest incentives for the most of the despicable acts committed by humans. The case is the same for racism.

Through the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries blacks were taken to America to work without pay, with little food and water. They worked for ungodly hours and were whipped at any sign of fatigue. Back in Africa the whites stole our resources and exploited our labour. The perpetrators of slavery and colonialism knew that blacks were equal to them in every way; they were logical, intelligent beings and would eventually revolt against their oppressors.

Any human put in such intolerable conditions would before long seek freedom. In order to prevent this for as long as possible, these individuals inducted racism. Make the black man feel like an animal, make him hate himself, hate his colour, and detest his heritage, and he will become submissive like a dog to his master. Make the average white man feel superior to blacks, give him the mentality that blacks are merely monkeys, and he will whip and oppress them with no mercy or compunction. After all they whip their horses.

So it is: centuries of oppression, vituperation, and self-hate all for fiscal gain. Discovering this truth, realizing that there is truly nothing wrong or unsavoury about you, that all your insecurities were just a result of human greed and callousness , is just…… Well everyone deserves to feel it. It is the first and most important step in dismantling racism. Of course there are other challenges: Wage gaps, exclusion of BME men and women in taking positions of power, racist police officer who do stop search on young BME men and neo-colonialism to the killing of black youth through police brutality- the list is endless, but the first step to being equal is feeling equal.

The second step for me after accepting myself was the normalization of black features, and other features considered as exotic. Another strategy adopted by the whites to further disenchant us with our features was the normalization of Eurocentric ones. Apart from emphasizing the beauty of white men and women and their lookalikes by featuring them on TV, they also sought to standardize these features, putting them on screen so often that anything contrary seemed unnatural. And we all know that unnatural or odd to humans means bad or in this case ugly. Thus, the blue black skin, the wide nose the full lips, the voluptuous body became anathemas.

The process of demolishing this particular vein of racism is pretty straightforward. Appreciate blackness! Normalize extra dark skin, 4-c hair, wide noses, full lips and they will lose their anchor weights of racism.

 It is ironic how resilient, yet fragile racism is. It has thrived for so long enduring, and permeating every aspect of life around the globe, yet with the slightest consciousness of it and its workings, it falls disintegrated and wingless to the earth. It simply takes a few twitter/Instagram pictures and some reflection on history to its annihilation.

Food for thought