By George Morara
2014 and Racism is an Issue!
100 years (not days) after the emancipation proclamation, following about 400 years of slavery, began American Apartheid … Ok, this should jolt any human being to changing something radically!!!!
Video clip of Soccer star Mario Balotelli caught with a flood of tears streaming down his face, allegedly Napoli fans had been shouting racial slurs at Balotelli….
Nearly 50 years after the supposed end of apartheid in America, racism is still deeply entrenched in American society! In South Africa, recovery is a loooong way of. In our own country!
I mean I am not a black American- but I have experienced racism right in my face! Several times…
Once in a town I had lived in for 10 years in Britain, I met a stranger right in the town centre who stopped to ‘greet’ me! He was totally sober but extremely vile- he told me to ‘fucking go back to your country, you fucking black cunt’!
I was with my kids and they were all totally shaken by this. And even though I had no trust in The British Police, I actually called them in an effort to teach my kids that WE CAN try to deal with that kind of behaviour in a civil manner!
The police arrived 20 minutes later- long after the man had gone!
Fortunately for me, this nasty experience occurred right under a surveillance camera. The police were able to track the horrible individual right upto where he had parked his car and lay in wait until he returned. They arrested him, and punished him accordingly! The outcome was such a huge relieve for a lesson to my kids. This experience reaffirmed my faith in dealing with racism!
There’s hope that more and more people- are terribly upset by racist behaviour! And sometimes, you meet the right people in the right places to give appropriate support!
In countries such as Britain, the greatest challenge is institutional racism, which is a reflection of society’s attitude towards people’s of colour. Society is generally led by government and the media- in my view!
In organisations such as The a National Health Service which relies heavily in foreigners settled in The UK, you’d struggle to find a black person whose broken through the ceiling to top managerial posts! If you find one, he/she is a celebrity!
I trained several white nurses, who clearly under-performed compared to many other black nurses, and later whenever I was in practice areas, many of my white former students were doing better in their career progress than their black counterparts!
For racism to happen In a country like Britain which has had contact with the rest of the world for centuries, it’s such a shame! Racism anywhere anyway is unacceptable!
We shouldn’t be talking about this at this time in the history of the world. But sadly, this is a social cancer in a The West particularly in America and Western Europe as these two claim to be civilised and have the lion’s share in intercultural/interracial contact!
Our biggest challenge as people’s of colour especially black people, is to free ourselves from mental slavery! And this is one weapon racists commonly applied by racists! Racists also divide us effortlessly when they apply the ‘Tribal card’ and then we remain totally un-united the whole continent over!
I am convinced that if we deal with racism firmly, we can overcome it- as individuals- as for Institutional Racism, clearly the respective governments and the media ( not friends particularly) but they have a huge role to play.
Right now in my own estimation, there’s a small minority of white people appalled by racism, even though hugely indifferent, the even smaller minority are willing to have their voices heard, and that’s no small matter!
Even this black history month initiative, it isn’t loud enough, with the right objectives! Beside celebrating we still need to lobby for policy changes to deal with racism effectively!
It can be done!