I saw the scene on television. A black man was attempting to enter a train coach and he was repeatedly pushed out by white men. He seemed to be saying he was a Chelsea fan, and may be told them they were being racist. They accepted it and denied him entry.
There followed the usual litany of request to fish out perpetrators and punish them. One may want to ask some rational questions about the black color. Is it for instance contagious, that is you become black by associating with one? Would one come into contact with some dreadful disease which is peculiar to black race? I believe the answers to all these questions are negative.
Then we move to the realm of the social, where blacks are viewed as inferior to others. Be that as it may, will one become inferior by sharing the same train coach with an inferior race? That also will be answered negatively. So why is it that the black race is object if scorn and ridicule? There are Indians who are black and whose social misery is worse than that of many blacks of Africa. Some may allude to slave trade. Fine, when did slavery stop? If slavery was unjust action committed by blacks and whites against other blacks, does it make future generations of blacks objects of ridicule?
We need not mention that many blacks have distinguished themselves as athletes, as footballers, as boxers, as basket ballers and the likes. Many black men have married white women, sired children, with a product of such union becoming President of United States. In the field of football, a black man, Pele, became a world legend. We refer to football because it is in that game that racism is shown much more. May be there is sample evil about football, in that it was in Egypt that a match between two Egyptian clubs turned deadly, with many dead.
Unfortunately there is no collective black identity in relation to collective action as there is of white race. When blacks assemble, they are not blacks, but English, French, Portuguese, may be even Spaniards. But many other races also feel they can look down on blacks: Arabs, Asians, Chinese. So like an endangered specie, must blacks be under protection of law before they are able to mingle freely with the rest of humanity? Were blacks to be rational, they would reflect that many others suffered racism before them, but overcame the prejudices and triumphed. Jews were one such race. What was the motivating factor behind Hitler ‘ s campaign? Racism. But today, those whom you dare not criticise are the Jews.
In America, racism sent blacks to the ghetto. Today, every black youth in that country is suspect. At the slightest provocation, the cops would extinguish his life. Unfortunately, blacks there and in Africa refuse to learn from others. Instead of overcoming prejudice by being better, they affirm the righteousness of the prejudice by being barbaric. It confirms the stereotype of blacks being subnormal. We produced Jean Badel Bokassa. We see a ninety – year plus clinging to power. Some stay for over forty years. This they do because they can’t build institutions that are not dependent on one human, perishable person.
Can blacks learn from the Arab Prophet, Muhammad? At the onset of his mission he had very unruly opponents. One woman, who was a neighbor of his developed a habit of heaping trash on him whenever he passed by her house. When he passed on two occasions and the trash was not heaped on him, he enquired about the woman. He was told she was sick. He visited her to comfort her. That melted her heart. So blacks, if you are capable of any collective action, try to know your purpose on earth. The scorn, derision, contempt, will then be fuel to spur your progress. If you don’t, you deserve much more.
