03/06/2020
The past couple of days I have watched the news and seen everything that people have been sharing concerning and felt extremely emotional. That we can still be living in a world where an unarmed man can be killed by a police officer in the middle of the street is disgusting. Sad, horrifying and so much more. And I know that this is just one of many incidences.
In many ways I thought that I have nothing to say that needs to be heard but then I realized that is exactly what white people have been saying for years and thus leaving black people to fight their battle alone.
When living in South Africa we experienced a few small incidences of black on white racism but I am fully aware that this is NOTHING compared to what black people experience every day. It did however teach me to see things from the perspective of someone less privileged. While in SA I also had many heated conversations with people who were openly and vehemently racist. I realized how naïve I had been all my life, growing up in a family that it is not racist and in a white community, I did not realize how wide spread racism is. In every country we have lived in we have seen how black people are treated with injustice and although their struggles may vary whether they be in Africa, America or Europe, they are always present.
One way to change this is education, another is to change what we see in the media. Black artists need to be seen more in films and theaters, black singers heard more, black authors read more. We need to see them represented more and their message needs to be heard more. In SA no one dared talk about racism and I think that leads to so many problems. In the community we lived in white people liked to pretend that we ‘are all the same’. But we are not. And that’s great. Diversity of culture is what makes this world so interesting and the main reason most people travel. But we need to see that there are differences, accept them and learn from them. Pretending racism does not exist is not the answer.
Things need to change. I do not know exactly what is the right way to do it but I know that talking about it is the first step.
