When it comes to race in the United States, there are aspects that the black American community will struggle to escape. These include but not limited to the black tax or where an educated individual is left with the burden of supporting an entire family.
There’s also the sectoral organisation of housing, that has divided ghettos, limiting residential areas to particular races.
But there is one thing I remember that was odd. Talking to my younger brother about race when he moved to the US for studies a few years after me, I had told him that he was black and there was nothing about equality, and especially be cognisant of the fact that we were living in Alabama.
This past weekend, Kenyans received notifications of terror alerts that were sent to their social media accounts, especially WhatsApp.
A friend from Uganda was in town, and I wanted to take her out on Saturday afternoon. I messaged her and asked if she was available. She responded by asking: “Have you not seen the alert?”
A few of my international colleagues also asked what precaution to take a day after we had received many alerts circulating on social media platforms.
What do you do? Avoid busy areas? For people like me who work downtown, especially on a street that is always busy every day.
At the end of the day, my friend was not going to a busy street, mall or hotel. She wanted to stay indoors where she felt safe — and she did.
What was even more fascinating is that I attended a workshop two days later, where most participants were Kenyans from Wajir, Garissa, and Mandera.
Then as usual at the end of the meeting, there was the occasional group photo and one of the facilitators cracked a joke: “Let’s take the picture inside, this is not the time for us to be taking photos in front of a hotel.”
And I was shocked when he said: “Oh yes, one of our colleagues was once arrested at a shopping mall here in Nairobi and detained for 48 hours. We did not know where he was. It was his first time in Kenya.
“He was busy taking pictures and selfies in the mall, and the security thought that he was suspicious. We have to talk about these things, otherwise we could find ourselves in a similar predicament and we are innocent.”
That instantly took me back to my days in the US and taking extra measures to avoid being mistaken.
When terror alert messages go around, we are quick to think about our safety, while other communities view their safety differently.
Nerima Wako-Ojiwa is the executive director at Siasa Place @NerimaW
