Black and dehumanization have become inseparable duo since the time we have looked ourselves and discovered that one is black and the other is white. When you read books that talk about oppression and racial segregation against the black, at first you will think every generation of black is meant to suffer slavery and unending racial attack. Then, you will wonder why Negroid been falling victim of globally pronounced white acclaimed domination, even in the recent times.
I have read books with racial ordeals, written by both African writers and the whites. Some are just memorable. They stand indelible. Whenever I read or hear that one black man is molested or killed, the memory that flashes back through my brain is that of fear, survival, search for identity and escapism from the mess of being black. That is why the books like Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Stowe, Tell Freedom and Mine Boy by Peter Abraham, Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi, Alex Laguma's A Walk in the Night, Athol Fugard's Sizwe Bansi is Dead will always remain forever- they, especially Uncle Tom's Cabin made me shed tears.
We have read enough of Saartjie Baartman, a young big-butted South African woman and a victim of slavery transported all the way from her homeland to France by the white imperialists, her life as a worthless freak show attraction and her death as a remnant of black history in the museum of the white and her final burial courtesy of Nelson Mandela's plea in 2006.
Racism occurs everywhere: in football, church even motor park. Ask footballers like Drogba, Toure, Dani Alves, and Brown Ideye what it takes to be of black, they will have the same ordeals to narrate. Recently, Chelsea Football FC banned some of their fans for life from entering Stamford Bridge because during a Champions League match between Chelsea FC and PSG in France, a number of Blues fans threw a black man out of the train station. It wasn't accidental, they still shouted '' we are racists, yes we are racists!.'' What this shows is that racism is a chronic plague. It is hereditary and traditional!
A little while back, a dear friend, an adept reader Ogunyemi Fisayo didn't believe that there may be a killing out of racism in this century. I was with him discussing writing and general issues and we put lips on the Ferguson and Baltimore attacks. As I made my stand, my friend roared '' No! They are not truly racist attacks. The problem is that whenever there is a black attack case, it is always exaggerated. It is unnecessary call for sympathy and global attention.' To buttress my point, I told him of George Zimmerman and Tryvon Martins issue, the flimsy excuse of the murderer and the justice partially left undone. We left the issue without putting our eggs in the same basket.
Here comes another epiphany. The present South Caroline Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church attack leading to the death of nine black souls is a manifestation of racism. Dylan Roof, the 21 year-old white suspect, already charged with nine counts of murder doesn't show remorse and emotion, even when the families of the victims spread the olive of forgiveness.
The attack is historical, capable of generating racial war in U. S. It has been described as '' not merely a mass shooting, not merely a matter of gun violence, this was a racial hate crime and must be confronted as such.'', while U. S president has described it as an incident that exhumes the memories of ''a dark past.'' But the questions are: when will racism end? Will justice be ever done? When will blacks stop regretting being black?
In U. S alone, the list of the racial attacks against the black is endless. The attack is perpetual. This year alone, I can point out to three. Although there has been attempt to stop the chronic plague, the questions still remain: when will a black man feel the same way his white counterparts feel in United States? When will the blacks have their respite and say: this land belongs to us all? When will the fantasy 'we are all from the same Adam' become a reality?
~ follow @DonRabtob on Twitter
