Racism and Realism

So today i stumbled upon a racism issue in the social media streets and the sad part is people of the same race are fighting over this issue. While others think that anything a white man says against a black man is being racist others think that black people (Africans in particular) contribute in fueling up racism for example not being environmentally friendly, inability to capitalise on resources, corruption, culture that shuns development amongst other things.

First blog and am taking on a heated up issue. Well for starters not only a white man is racist, we all can be racist and for all we know not every white man is a racist. So before we go painting everything either black or white, lets acknowledge those fifty shades of grey. Racism is one issue that has always been there and seems immortal through the passage of time. In others it comes as part of their culture so it is inculcated at an early stage, in others its a matter of peer pressure while in many its how history has been fabricated into the fibre of their minds in a way that they see things the way they are designed to.

The issue of superiority and inferiority goes way back and many of us have allowed our past to take control. While the past reminds us, it does not define us. What we do today is what defines us and what generations to come will do in the future defines them. Slavery was a thing and every black man out there is frustrated by it, all they seek is revenge and carry bitterness to also become the racists we talk of today. Yes you need to know where you came from but anything you do in bitterness, rage and frustration does not lead you to any good. The one you are mad at today may not even have the same mindset as their forefathers. Don’t let anger blind you from seeing the bigger picture. Don’t judge a son by the sins of his father. 

While we can remove history, culture, peer pressure, location, religion, social class and many others as drivers to racism, let us see if we can try to focus solely on the human being. Is it possible that one can be born racist?, I doubt that very much yet the more we grow and mature the more we start having these racial issues. Could the problem lie in our educational system, the more we learn, the more it influences our actions. Because truth be told racism is never an inborn thing, it’s triggered in humans throughout the process of their upbringing. Its something we cannot stop because someone somewhere wants that legacy to go on and the honors is therefore upon each and every one of us to make sure that we do not pass this form of hatred as legacy to those who will come after us.

It is now easier to be racist because along our own racial lines there is hatred, what happened to the spirit of ubuntu, of togetherness, of oneness, what happened to the spirit of love? Whether black, asian or white, we are humans before we are anything and we are each other’s keeper. Who has had an encounter with every human of just but one race and can safely conclude that they are all rotten potatoes in one sack? Clearly none and being racist only parades your level of foolishness for no wise person can turn down greatness just because they hate the race its emanating from.

They say an eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind. Let us not lose what really matters while chasing the shadows of the matter. Racism is real and is almost always mistaken with realism because not every fact and not every issue is racial. Sometimes you don’t get that post not because you are not asian but sometimes you just don’t qualify for it. If someone is being real with you its not always that they are being racist. Note thats i say its not always because sometimes it is and we need to learn to decipher realism from racism. Once you get into a situation with a racist mindset then everything you will be told will always go down to racism even when it’s not. Allow your emotional intelligence to let you know which is which and how to react to these issues.

One saying goes, ‘United we stand, divided we fall’. It’s a bitter sweet life and every sip from that cup entails growth in other aspects of life.