Racism? I get it; My First Experience

 Before I start, let me state that, I hate using words like race, black, white, etc to describe people but for the purposes of this write-up and in order to provide a thorough description, you will come across a few so forgive me.

 Last week, two events, underpinned by the same issue brought back memories of my first experience with racism in my country. I speak of the Rachel Dolezal event and the Church shooting in Charleston both in the US. I am sure most of you already know the stories let me remind of the Rachel Dolezal incident. Makes you wonder what really ‘race’ is. Why can’t Rachel Dolezal simply fight for a cause she believed in even if she doesn’t directly relate to its history because of her ‘race’? Many including myself believe that, Racism is a social construct meant to benefit a group of people with a superiority complex. As a result, those discriminated against may react in a radicalized manner that may result in ‘reverse racism’, so to speak. I really like this book (https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/news/view/free-ebook-racism-in-winnipeg). It is a thoroughly researched book on racism against Aborigines in Canada but with a wider reach on the subject which will give the reader a deeper understanding. I recommend it to anyone interested in racial issues.

Back to the subject! Let me say that, I believe in one race, the human race as do many in my country. I have friends from the entire globe and believe me, no racist will be my friend. As a kid growing up in West Africa I never experienced racism at first hand for obvious reasons; unlike today, there were very few tourists and expatriates working here, but the horrors of Apartheid South Africa was daily prime time news on television so i was no alien to the subject. Our next door neighbors were Caucasian and we had a normal neighbourly relationship.  But, in my teen years as a high school student with the swimming team, an interesting event occurred that drove me into researching more into slavery, colonialism, racism, the African-American experience vis a vis the Civil Rights Movement and the liberation struggles of various African countries in their quest for freedom from colonialism. Make no mistake, these are all intricately woven together. I found much in books I read from a library in honour of George Padmore, a Civil Rights Activist himself, who was to later settle and die in my country. In the early 90s, I also read a book titled “The Bell Curve” by an ‘evil genius’ of a professor, who propounded the absurd theory of why Caucasians, are by dint of genetics, more intellectually gifted than Blacks.

As a 16 year old I have attended in innocence and pride, live at Independence Square in my country, speeches of  Louis Farakhan, who spoke the truth but with some radical brute. Don’t get me wrong, this was not in appreciation of the expression of a radicalized ideology though I must admit I found some affinity is his expressions after my first experience with racism. As acerbic as his speeches may have sounded, I felt that this was a man who simply wanted to be accepted in a country where he found himself by default due to slave trade.

THE STORY

It was a beautiful sunny day during the second week of a three month long vacation from high school. As a member of my school’s swim team, I needed to keep in shape for next terms swimming competition. The lack of a community swimming pool drove me to a popular hotel with an average pool size about 20 km away from home. With a nonchalant attitude of a teenager, I pushed opened the gate that led to the poolside of the hotel, wondering why it was closed during working hours. Just then I saw these three Caucasians, two males and a female, breast-stroking in the pool. Apparently they were the only customers at that moment. I paid little attention to them and walked straight to the attendant, got my ticket, went to the changing room and took a shower before diving into the pool. When I emerged from under the water, I realised they had left the pool and sat under the canopy, murmuring a conversation that could hardly be heard. I still paid little attention to them but kept on with my warm-up strokes. This 60ish Caucasian lady, who apparently was the owner of the hotel, appeared through the poolside gate with a lithe poise and strolled straight to the attendant. By her agitated gestures towards the attendant and an occasional slant of her head towards my direction, I had a hunch that, there was something wrong. As she approached the canopy of the Caucasian customers, I sensed strongly that she spied my direction, albeit demurely, with her peripheral vision. After what seemed like an endless chatter she left and suddenly, I became self-aware of my surroundings so I approached the attendant to inquire what the problem was. His body language gave him away and I knew he was telling a lie when he said, the owner wanted to ensure that everything was alright. In the meantime, the other Caucasian customers went back to swimming. To cut a long story short, I noticed everytime I dove into the pool, these other guests would come out until at some point one of them went out apparently to make a complain to the owner. Within 5 minutes the owner came in and requested that I left the pool, the excuse being that I had a limit of one hour swimming period. I knew it was a lie because I was a regular at that pool though I have never met the owner before. Typical of me, I didn’t complain. I left but not without finding out the truth from the attendant who was brave enough this time to reveal that, the other guests had complained that they couldn’t swim with me in the pool. This is just one of many subsequent experience.

You may wonder what the big deal is since  you may probably have experienced far harsher racial discrimination. Well here’s the big deal! You see, my country was the first African country south of the Sahara to gain independence from Colonial rule in the 50s. My country played a major role in the attempt to unite all races on this continent. To think that, someone will dare come here and discriminate knowing this history was shocking to me. I have become an online police against discrimination on social media. Several times I have reported racial abuse on Facebook but they very often have returned with a message suggesting that they saw nothing wrong with what I reported. Authorities track communication between so-called terrorist groups and the youngsters they are attempting to recruit and indoctrinate with so-called ' radical Islam' but find nothing wrong with White supremacist groups that operate next door. They block 'terrorist' sites but find nothing wrong with groups and sites that promote racial abuse and other forms of discrimination with ridiculous statistics under the guise of freedom of speech. Far right ideologies, pivoted on the paranoia that a particular race face extinction due to 'dilution' from other 'races', continue to gain grounds worldwide. Herein lays the hypocrisy of the Charleston shooting and the many other shootings that have occurred. There's a time bomb brewing online that may generate a new form of terrorism and we must all watch it. This will only be the beginning if no conscious effort is made to put things in check.

There is only one Race, The Human Race

So, all I wish to say to all who suffer some form of discrimination, based on gender, class, economic, religious, race/reverse racism and all but most especially to my brothers and sisters in the Diaspora is that, I GET IT!!