Let me start with a startling hypothesis: Every other race in the world subconsciously hates and fears the black race and consciously discriminates against it.
More to the point, throughout history, “people of colour” have borne the brunt of racial discrimination around the world and, improbably, in Africa itself.
Why should this be so and why the enduring malignancy? My conclusion is that Africans are themselves to blame, for they neither respect themselves, nor do they regard themselves as equal to other races in any field of human endeavour, except in music, sports and bad governance.
SLAVERY AND ASSIMILATION
Lest I be misunderstood, I am no afro-pessimist. On the whole, I love Africa and its inhabitants, but I also live in an age that has been almost totally been brainwashed to believe that everything foreign is superior and every man and woman of lighter complexion more intelligent than average.
As for members of the black race whose ancestors were transplanted from the continent centuries ago – through slavery and assimilation – other reasons have been investigated for centuries without any satisfactory conclusion.
Were we, indeed, created to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for other races? It would appear so, since we seem to have accepted our lot.
However, the worm does turn sometimes, and it did three weeks ago after the cold-blooded execution of an African American by a white policeman in Minnesota City. This was not the first time this happened; it was just one of the most publicised episodes of that nature in recent times, for black Americans have been lynched in public for centuries.
RACE RIOTS
It is on record that the majority of race riots that have sullied American history in recent times – in 1919, 1943 and 1968 – had their origins in almost similar circumstances, usually brutal death visited on unarmed black folk by white American cops.
Ordinarily, this happens in the course of their arrests for anything from misdemeanours to petty crimes that do not warrant death, seemingly motivated by something far beyond law enforcement.
Such brutal arrests are said to result in hundreds of deaths practically every year in the States, leading to the conclusion that blacks are usually targeted because of their skin colour.
This is the main reason why more blacks are arrested and incarcerated than members of any other race for similar crimes, and not because they have a natural proclivity for crime.
This display of racism comes about in two broad ways. There are those predominantly white people, mostly of the liberal persuasion, who profess to be colour-blind, but they consciously shy away from interacting with minority races.
They may not be violent, but in any situation pitting members of the two races against one another, they always stick together. They don’t like to mingle with black people if they can help it.
And then there are those who go out of their way to show naked hatred through explicit discrimination and violence.
PREJUDICE
There is no choosing one over the other because while the former is insidious and difficult to fight, the second has one saving grace – at least you can tell who the enemy is.
Reportedly, such fellows do not even have a clue about the discredited biological or genetic justifications for their prejudice.
They just know that the culture in which they were steeped from childhood has historically socialised them to regard the black race as inferior.
However, this is not about Black Americans and their tribulations; here I am more concerned about us Africans, especially those who live in a corner of the globe known as Kenya.
Why is it that in this day and age we always defer to everything white and try to ape alien mannerisms? While there is nothing wrong with a Kenyan speaking and even writing in English – after all, it is a global language – it doesn’t make sense to try to speak like native English speakers.
Yet our newscasters will strain lots of facial muscles trying to sound more English than the English themselves.
WHITE CLIENTS
I have not come across this, but I hear white clients always get preferential treatment in tourist hotels just because their managers and waiters think they must bend over backwards to please them. It is difficult to understand how low a man can sink to do that kind of thing.
Is it any wonder foreigners have such a low opinion of Africans in general, people who can be induced through financial incentives to mistreat and demean their compatriots?
One thing is clear; until we cultivate a healthy respect for ourselves and our own, we shall forever remain beholden to those who hold the purse strings. They have read us and know our level of servility and greed.
Mr Ngwiri is a consultant editor; [email protected]
