There was a time in history when blacks were exhibited in zoos like wild animals. Man! That was a dark part of our history. Even though things are not as extreme as they once were, you’d be the most ignorant being in existence if you are made to believe that the era of racism has come and gone. Racism is still very much around, in some cases it’s subtle as possible or practiced rather brazenly, in which ever form it comes, it’s not something anyone should look forward to.

Before now, I have had this preconceived notion that you had to be white to be racist, well, I never knew that I was to be proven wrong sooner than I had expected. For example, as an African, you are hated by some blacks with African roots outside of the continent because they’ve been told, our ancestors had sold theirs as slaves to Europe and other parts of America, while we stayed behind living as kings. So, you see, it’s not really a black and white world. This is an example of how our history has been used as a tool to inform many unenlightened ones to view things through the lenses of color and race.

Another example: a few years back, I was dating this English lady, and we had this very huge misunderstanding, and in the heat of it she told me “you so dark I’m not even sure you can see yourself in the dark”. I was shocked to my bones. You know what they say about someone accidentally revealing what’s been on their minds about you when they are either drunk or angry? Well, that began to make sense to me at that point.

I couldn’t really understand what really got me pissed, was it the fact that we were in love and utilized every opportunity we had to profess love to each other? Or the fact that she wasn’t even white, she was actually a mulatto and I had expected that she would have known better. From then on, the relationship went into doldrums and though she made efforts to make things right, things never went back to normal and the relationship then slid into a state of insolvency.

We’ve suffered racism in different forms, be you a Jew, Asian, Half Caste, Caucasian, Mulatto, Negroid, Latino or African. Education is not enough, it takes personal conviction not to appeal to racism and if those who practice the act don’t feel convicted to be anything else than racists, then there’s little we can do about their decision.

So what do we do? We obviously can’t continue to be crybabies always playing the victims card in the face of racism, that’s pathetic. There’s a lot we can be other than victims of racism. Don’t let that blunt your blades of excellence, don’t let them put you down no matter what. For me, I’m going to shine bright, work twice as hard until I can’t be ignored, just so that any emotion that’s left for them towards me is jealousy, yes, jealous of my success.

I dont know about you.