It has been a long time since I heard any good news come out of America. The recurring theme has been about racism and police brutality against African Americans. As an author who has connected with a number of African Americans living in America, I just had to write this post. In this post, I share 3 things African Americans need to know:
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When you start doesn’t matter, how you finish does
- A few years ago, I watched a cooking show and something struck me in that episode. I think it was MasterChef Australia if I’m not mistaken. In that episode, the contestants had to follow a professional chef in making a particular dish. The pro-chef did one thing, the contestants had seconds to do the same thing before the pro-chef did something else. One of the contestants made a mistake and stopped. She had two choices: a) continue with the process whilst knowing she had made a mistake or b) start afresh whilst watching the pro-chef giving herself a chance of winning. The contestant chose option b. She started afresh and was behind the other contestants but she sped up and was able to catch up with the others. At the end of that round, she came in 2nd place.
- Dear African Americans, it doesn’t matter when you start and how many more other people are ‘ahead’ of you. You are not in competition with anyone else. What matters is how you finish.
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Nobody cares about you
- I am a mom, I have a daughter. You won’t see me writing about sons or boys routinely. That doesn’t mean I have a thing against boys/sons, I just can’t relate at the moment because I don’t have one.
- I am a meat eater. You won’t find me writing about vegetarian dishes routinely. I don’t have a thing against vegetarians but I just don’t care about vegetarian food
- In Nigeria, programmes shown on local televisions focus mostly on shows made by Nigerians. There is access to TV stations that show non-Nigerian shows. I cannot imagine a Lebanese living in Nigeria complaining that Nigerian TV doesn’t show more Lebanese shows.
- Dear African Americans, this may sound harsh but truthfully, no one cares about you. The way I see it, if you want to see more posts about boys/sons, you write one. If you want to see more posts about vegetarians, you write them. So you if want to see more things that cover issues that are important to you, don’t expect anyone else to do it. Just do it yourself!
- Take the Nigerian movie industry for instance. Hollywood would happily play Nigeria as a country filled with militants with very bad accents. However, Nigeria took charge of its narrative and produces its own movies and series every Nigerian is happy to watch. Yes, the budget Nigerian movie producers have is nowhere near what Hollywood has but I happily watch Nigerian movies over a Hollywood movie anytime as I find them relatable. I do not expect Hollywood to cater to Nigerians and in fact, I want Hollywood to not feature Nigeria in any of its movies. I find their attempts extremely annoying.
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Take Action
- Security
- In Nigeria, a lot of neighbourhoods have their own security watch. They don’t rely on the police for their safety. In fact, where my dad lives in Nigeria, there is private security that watches everyone that comes in and goes out of the estate. There’s a locally agreed curfew imposed by the residents for residents and visitors. If you are outside of the estate at 10pm, you will not be able to drive into the estate with your car. Your only option would be to walk in through one side gate.
- I don’t live in America, so I don’t know how possible this is or not but I am interested in finding out. Is there anything that stops African Americans from taking their own security into their own hands in their neighbourhoods? Can you not set up your own entry and exit watch? If the police are the problem, can you not set up ‘watch’ for whenever anyone drives into your streets? In fact, set up live recordings of your areas. This way, you hold everyone accountable including the police. If you have a local neighbourhood watch, can you not have a transparent dialogue with your local police department telling them what you expect from them?
- Investment
- Apart from being a shrewd businessman, one thing no one can take away from Africa’s richest man (Aliko Dangote) is that he created job opportunities for Nigerians by setting up shop in Nigeria. He doesn’t ask people to buy from him because of the colour of his skin or his accent. He takes his business very seriously. So whilst he is creating wealth for himself, he is also re-distributing it in the communities that he works with
- In fact, there are times when I actively seek out products that have been ‘made in Nigeria’ over other West African countries. If I cannot buy products made in Nigeria, how can I expect anyone else to? If the economy is poor, the community is poor.
- As I don’t know much about African Americans outside of what turns up on my timeline, how many rich African Americans re-invest their wealth in their local communities?
- I had a conversation with a lady I met from Hong Kong recently. I wanted to understand racism in Asian countries. According to her, as long as you have money, no one cares about the colour of your skin! Learn their language if you want to do business with them. They’ll learn your language if they want to do business with you. That makes a lot of sense though. Whenever I go to Brixton market in London, I find the Asian grocers speak fluent Nigerian pidgin English. In fact, some of them know a bit of Yoruba too.
- What this means is, those who are financially able to should create job opportunities in their local communities. Remember, no one cares about you. If you need something, consider supporting those from your local communities first. When you are successful, outsiders will seek you out. There are a number of successful Nigerian musicians who have now been signed up to Sony Music because Sony wants their success to rub off on them too. If you are wretched and suffer from self-hate, the world will be ruthless to you. If you are united as a family, you are strong beyond measure.
- Security
source: Google images
Obviously, these 3 things African Americans need to know are not set in stone, they are just my personal opinion as of right now. I really would like to know more about how African Americans are taking charge of their own narratives (and not just by kneeling or protesting). Has anyone set up a SMART Objective? What else do you think African Americans need to know? Please leave a comment below.
A great deal of what you say is informed and quite correct and some things I take some issue with. While it is true that black Americans often find themselves in a socioeconomic struggle in their own country to say no one cares about us is strange and surprising. It ignores the millions of non-black Americans who care about justice and equality that is not based on race. Many of these people are white, jewish, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern and mixed race. African Americans are not wretched, self-hating whiners and complainers. We just don’t respond favorably to seeing our sons and daughters gunned down by policemen and being told it’s our own fault. As for open communication with the police and setting expectations it is really hard to do that when the police hide behind their badges, deny wrongdoing and are repeatedly exonerated by the legal system when they are charged with brutality against the black community. As for community self-patrolling, well crime is an issue in poor communities, not black communities. Not all black communities are poor. I’m not sure why being black matters in that regard. Usually in communities that are poor the enthusiasm and resources for such patrolling are lacking because of the very reasons that caused the poverty in the first place.
I do think economic empowerment starts at home and I have noticed that there is not a strong push to “buy black” within the black community. A lot of this is due to the fact that big box chain stores like Wal-Mart, Ikea and Home Depot etc have destroyed the hand-made, community small businesses. But I do think this issue needs more attention.
You also make excellent points about black entertainment. Since 2015 I have become increasingly aware of black/minority production companies (Jada Pinkett, Ryan Cooglar, Lee Daniels, Ava Duvernee etc) that are telling their own stories onscreen in their own way. The results have been amazing and I expect bigger and better things in the years to come.
Lastly, the black community is extremely philanthropic. Our efforts don’t gain as much media attention but black Americans have an unshakeable legacy of helping one another that goes back centuries. For example, people will raise money for a local family devastated by disaster or loss and never say a word about it. It’s common in the black community to find cash stuffed into your mailbox when people find out you have cancer or have lost a family member. If someone is operating a succesful salon or garment enterprise they will provide seed loans to others in their community so they can start their own small businesses. Often these people would not be able to qualify for a traditional bank loan.
Thank you for such an awesome post! As someone once said, nothing succeeds like success!
Hello Tara,
Thanks for stopping by and for your detailed comment. What I know, outside of what the media shares, about America is from things people like you share with me.
I think you should re-read the second point I made.
One of the things I love about being Yoruba and Nigerian, is that there’s a saying/proverb for most life situations.
One comes to mind: if you want someone to help you carry your box that’s heavy and on the floor, you have to squat so that the person who you need help from knows that you are ready. If you stand straight and ask the person to help you, the person will ask you if you are ready. (Hope that makes sense?)
Obviously, this is not how the actual saying goes but I have tried to translate it using proper English.
My second point was never exclusively about justice and equality.
It seems I did a bad job in trying to convey my point, so let me try again.
A lot of the time, I have seen posts/comments about discrimination in terms of prison sentences etc. That for the same exact crime, one person gets a pat on the back and another gets a brutally harsh sentence. Then I read a comment that has stayed with me for a long time. The commenter said something along the lines of “it doesn’t matter that different sentences have been passed, the fact still remains that a crime has been committed. Do not commit a crime, you don’t get sent to jail”. Obviously that second part is not always true.
I spoke to a Hong Kong Chinese lady I recently met a few weeks back trying to understand racism in China and Asia in general. It was very enlightening to find out that in her opinion, what they think about people of African descent (not exclusively those from Africa) is slavery. Their knowledge is based on what the media shows them.
This now brings me back to my point. If you want to be more than what someone else portrays you to be based on their limited knowledge of you, then you need to do the work. That’s why I am extremely proud of the Nigerian movie and music industries. We took charge of our own narrative. We do not let anyone else define our beauty to us. We do not let anyone else tell us what it is to be Nigerian. To be honest, I do not want anyone else representing us in their productions in Hollywood. Recently, all they care to include about Nigeria is Boko Haram. Does Hollywood care about Nigerians? Of course not. All it cares is that if it portrays us in a certain way and a certain fake accent, it might contribute to their bottom line. Apart from Black Panther, do you strongly believe that Hollywood cares about you enough as a people to show you in a positive light??? If I were to produce a movie, do you think I should portray myself in a negative way? Of course not. It doesn’t mean I am discriminating against anyone else. If I were a producer, I would feature ‘myself’ in a positive light first. If I were a news editor, I would spin news about myself in a positive way. That is what I mean when I say ‘nobody cares about you’
Did I do a better job this time around?
For the 3rd point I talked about, you have countered it with some obstacles and there, in my opinion, lies part of the problem. Everything has a solution, you just need to think hard and restrategise. You have two options: 1) accept the current narrative or 2) reassess the current situation and come up with strategies that will bring about change. if you choose to not do anything, no one else can help you. Isn’t there a saying “heaven helps those who help themselves?” What steps can be taken, in your opinion, to end police brutality in the US? I would like to know something in the format of a SMART Objective, proper actionable steps. What did your ancestors do to give you the freedom you have today? How can you utilise their strategies today?
So happy to discuss this with you!
I think your examples about Nigerian culture and autonomy are on point but they don’t address my particular concern which is, what happens when Nigerians step outside of their bubble? Nigerian women can celebrate their beauty and intelligence but do they have any control over how others see them? What would happen if a Nigerian was outside of Nigeria and did not have access to education, employment, healthcare etc. because of his race or ethnicity? All of the self love and hard work that Nigerian has accumulated will not matter. If he applies to Cambridge University and the admissions department decided that 5 Nigerians a year is enough and he is the 6th applicant. Will his good grades and excellent application matter? The answer is no and the same thing applies to the African-American community. We certainly appreciate and celebrate our own accomplishments and achievements, that is not the problem. We are not consumed with self-hatred. The problem is that institutions and industries that benefit from us do not acknowledge us and that is damaging and harmful.
As for crime yes it is true, at some point it seems silly to go on about unjust prison sentences when the truth is no one should be going to jail for any reason. But again, prison sentences aren’t the point. When we mention prison sentences it is because we are trying to highlight the fact that racism is institutionalized, it is systematic and pervasive. It extends to the legal system but that is just an example. So instead of using incarceration statistics we could just as easily look at statistics when it comes to healthcare, finance, education, employment and every other area of life.
If a man convicted of selling drugs in his community is given a harsher sentence then his white counterpart perhaps neither of them deserve sympathy but what do you say when statistics reveal that African-American children are 40% more likely to be denied pain medication upon arrival in the emergency room at hospital? What do you say when studies reveal that African-American girls under the age of 12 or viewed as sexualized individuals compared to their white or Asian counterparts? What do you say when African-Americans are three times as likely to be underserviced when it comes to mental health issues? What do you say when African-American School children are labeled as oppositional, defiant or disruptive when their white counterparts are recommended for hyperactive/attention deficit treatment for the exact same behaviors? What do you say when studies reveal that employers are less likely to consider candidates for positions when the names on their resumes indicate they may be non-white?
I think using incarceration statistics may be harmful as it does not tell the big picture.
I think the point you were trying to make is that if African-Americans just stop focusing on what other people think and do the hard work of building their own strong, successful communities then everything will be OK. But that is proving to be a theory that doesn’t work in reality. We cannot simply fold inwords and completely operate independently within a system that operates on a basis of inequality. Respectability politics only takes us so far. Let’s not forget that Trayvon Martin was a happy, well-adjusted young man who was minding his own business. He was walking home in the gated community where his affluent, successful, hard-working, well educated parents lived. He was not selling drugs, he was not speeding through the neighborhood in a car, he was not running from the cops, he was not wearing gold chains in blasting rap music from a speaker. The man who shot him however was a poorly educated, often under employed individual with an arrest record.
And I do agree to some extent that others see African-Americans in the light of slavery because that is a large part of what the media puts out there. But I would also argue that such people simply have no interest in seeing anything else because there are an equal amount, if not more, of strong positive images of us in the media some people simply do not care to look further than their own suppositions. It is easier to think slavery than to read an amazing essay by Neil DeGrasse Tyson or admire the art of Romare Bearden, for example. If you ask me in 2018 what comes to mind when I think of Africans and I say people with spears in their hands then I am definitely the problem. If you think of African-Americans and the first thing that comes to mind is slavery then you are probably a bigot. I might give you a pass if you are over the age of 75. Maybe lol.
But what can African-Americans do to solve their own problems? That is a complicated question and the solution is equally complicated.
Take police brutality for example. We cannot force the police to view us as human beings and not animals. That is out of our control because the truth is if a policeman is racist he is going to keep his views and opinions no matter what we do. But what we can do is bring attention to the matter and make it part of the national conversation so it is harder for policemen to get away with it in the future. We can elevate the level of accountability within the law enforcement community. And there is some evidence that these measures are working. A record number of police departments have begun to use mandatory body cameras and that is becoming and invaluable tool and fair policing. Body cameras protect police officers who are just out there trying to do their job and it equally protects citizens who could be beaten or shot outside of standard procedure. Racial sensitivity training is becoming a standard part of the police academy curriculum as well as positive community involvement. Grants are being used to fund programs that allow police officers to interact with the community in ways that have nothing to do with crime, such as ice cream parties for neighborhood children, casual door to door meet and greets to get to know community members, Townhall discussions, hamburger cookout in the summers etc etc. it’s a drop in the bucket but the point is these changes have happened because African-Americans refuse to be silent. I think these changes are positive.
Ahahahahaha Tara this is why you are an author. Reading your comment was like reading an essay. Let me try to address your comments one after the other.
Q – Nigerian women can celebrate their beauty and intelligence but do they have any control over how others see them?
A – Nigerian women celebrate their beauty in spite of how others see them. True discrimination has never been about race. True discrimination, in my opinion, is “rich v poor” and “men v women”. In Nigeria, there’s this assumption, though underground, that a woman is a prostitute until proven otherwise (from what I have seen and heard). In Nigeria, a woman is perceived as nothing without a man. It doesn’t matter how educated she is, how much money she has or what she has achieved. She can be verbally abused by anyone. Let’s not get into the conversation of women who have no children. Society won’t just call her barren, some people are known to refer to such women as “male dogs (ako aja)”. The list is endless. However, in spite of the obstacles thrown her way, the Nigerian woman still holds her head up. You call her fat, she’d ask you “so what?”, you call her skinny, she’d say, “of course I am, skinny women are sexy”. I’ve got big ‘girls’ and in my teenage years, some people referred to me as the girl with big boobs. When a guy tries to act ‘tough’ I would hold my boobs, push them up and say “I have bigger balls than you, don’t mess with me”.
Whilst I cannot speak for every Nigerian woman, I know that the Nigerian women in my network are bold and fierce and embrace themselves in totality. Yes there are a few who try to bleach their skin. That problem is not exclusive to Nigeria or Africa. It’s the after effect of the world being dominated by whites and people perceiving having lighter skin as more beautiful than those with darker skin. That’s why I support the Nigerian movie industry. It helps our daughters to see more people with the same skin tone as them and know that they are beautiful. Black Panther achieved that too and that’s why I applaud the movie.
Q – What would happen if a Nigerian was outside of Nigeria and did not have access to education, employment, healthcare etc. because of his race or ethnicity?
A1 – It is a well-known fact that Nigeria is a constantly developing world. A lot of state schools do not have access to resources and that’s why parents do everything within their power to send their children abroad. Some families have been known to sell all their material possessions to ensure that at least one of their children gets a really good education.
When you have the money, you have the bargaining power. The UK is no longer as friendly to international students as they used to be, so less international students are looking to come here. I do not have the official statistics, I know this from conversations with a few friends.
There’s a saying – one man’s poison is another man’s meat.
So the same applies, as the UK doesn’t want international students, other countries in Europe have opened their arms to welcome international students and that’s where they are going. People migrate for economic benefits and not some misplaced sense of loyalty to a particular patch of earth.
The point here is Nigerians value education and they migrate to get it.
There is a Yoruba saying – it is the mother that trains the child.
A formal education adds to what the mother teaches the child, it does not replace it. During my one and only visit to the US, I went to a local McDonald’s. The sales assistant asked me where I was from because of my accent, so I said London. She looked confused, so I added the United Kingdom. There was more confusion on her face, so I added, you know, in Europe. At that she just shrugged her face.
How does someone in the 21st century, in America, not know that there is a continent called Europe?
There are a lot of people in Nigeria who are so poor that they live under a bridge. However, there are dirt cheap phones with internet access, that a lot of people to self-educate themselves with resources online. Not via a classroom education.
There is a saying in Nigeria – use what you have to get what you want. So, do you have a mobile phone? Does it have access to the internet? Use it to get that education you want. Even if you don’t have a mobile phone, I would like to believe that public libraries in America have desktop computers with internet access that anyone can use.
In the UK, if you go to a public library, they sometimes run courses to give people skills outside of formal education.
As far as I am concerned, there is no reason for an African American to not have a good education. You can either migrate or self-educate. That said, a lot of Nigerians go to the US to school. How come those Nigerians can access the education system there but African Americans cannot?
A2 – Any access to healthcare outside of Nigeria is significantly better than what can be found in Nigeria at the moment. I almost lost my mind when my mother passed away. Her death was very preventable. To assess whether someone is dead in Nigeria, you lift the person’s hand up and if it flops down, the person is dead. The average person doesn’t even know what CPR is, let alone having portable defibrillators.
A lot of Nigerians also believe in the use of medicinal herbs. Some people frown at them because they have not been certified by a white man (slave mentality).
A3 – I have only met one Nigerian who has said that his non-English name was what prevented him from getting a job. Nigerians are also good at helping others in their network find opportunities. It’s usually a case of I know someone who knows someone who knows someone.
The ultimate goal for Nigerians who migrate is to return back to Nigeria at some point. Not all Nigerians desire to be buried in a foreign land. So what you find is that they start sending money home for their families (and/or friends) to help them invest eg in properties.
You said – The problem is that institutions and industries that benefit from us do not acknowledge us and that is damaging and harmful
A – Why do you care that they acknowledge you? Life is a two-way street. Are you there for acknowledgement?
Most parents, when their children are about to leave home for the first time, say to their kids “face what you go there (eg University) to do”
So if you go somewhere looking for acknowledgement and you are not getting it, then you go elsewhere. If you go there because of something specific, face that thing and ignore everything else.
When I’m working, I don’t go to work to become friends with my colleagues. I go to work and face the job I am employed to do. The icing on the cake is if my colleagues and I can be friendly to each other. But as long as no one physically assaults me or is all up in my face being verbally abusive, I truly don’t care about that anyone but the job I am there to do.
For the first time, you have asked questions that made me pause. Maybe your narratives need to focus on these with the plan being on how to solve them
what do you say when statistics reveal that African-American children are 40% more likely to be denied pain medication upon arrival in the emergency room at hospital? – This I did not know
What do you say when studies reveal that African-American girls under the age of 12 or viewed as sexualized individuals compared to their white or Asian counterparts? – This I did not know. However, I have seen a lot of videos on YouTube where very young African-American girls are dancing in a very sexualised manner. I don’t think I have ever seen a video of an Asian girl child dancing that way.
What do you say when African-Americans are three times as likely to be underserviced when it comes to mental health issues? – Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Worldwide, unseen ‘illnesses’ are not taken very seriously and that’s in any ethnicity. My mom had lupus and people struggled to ‘see’ her pain because nothing was visible and she was surrounded by family and friends.
What do you say when African-American School children are labeled as oppositional, defiant or disruptive when their white counterparts are recommended for hyperactive/attention deficit treatment for the exact same behaviors? Hmmmmmmmmmmm I don’t even know what to say here.
What do you say when studies reveal that employers are less likely to consider candidates for positions when the names on their resumes indicate they may be non-white? – This happens in Nigeria with tribalism. Solution is simple. Create more job opportunities for your own people.
You said – I think the point you were trying to make is that if African-Americans just stop focusing on what other people think and do the hard work of building their own strong, successful communities then everything will be OK.
A – That is exactly my point but at the beginning, everything will not be OK. Those who do not want you to succeed will do everything they can to hinder your progress. You just need to keep faith, work hard, work smart and have an ever-evolving strategy and try not to betray yourselves.
You – We cannot simply fold inwords and completely operate independently within a system that operates on a basis of inequality.
A – You do not need to operate independently. No man is an island. When you have come out of the ashes, you can negotiate terms of engagement. You can DEMAND your right. Basically, it means standing up to a bully. Use the strategy that the West used to enslave African in the first instance. Think corporate takeovers.
I cannot hate on a white man for the past. Heck, if I was in their position all over 100s of years ago, do I know that I would not do the same thing? I applaud them for conceiving an idea and being able to execute it. Their forefathers are amazing. Look at the legacy they left their children. They ensured that their children will remain at the top. Now, do you want to remain at the bottom? If no, you will do whatever it takes to not be there.
Whilst this is not a comparison but an African woman would tell you that our struggles are considerably worse than that of African American women. In the food chain, African women are on the ground.
I am extremely proud that in a very male-dominated society, one of our own broke down every obstacle along her path to be at the top. I am talking about a woman called Folorunsho Alakija. Apparently, she even temporarily passed Oprah as the richest woman in the world of African descent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folorunso_Alakija. Another woman that I find inspiring is Ijeoma Uchegbu http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/staff/staff-news/071013-spotlightonijeomauchegbu. She left Nigeria with 3 children under 10 years of age and no husband in tow. Worldwide, race aside, people spite single mothers. Yet this woman (single mom at the time and in racist Britain in the 90s) broke through barriers, ALONE, to become a top dog in her field.
We all have a choice, accept what is or do something about it.