The title of this week's post may come as a surprise to my regular readers (all five of you). That’s because, typically, I use this space to rant about life’s injustices, racial disparity, false faith, and generally all the way that it sucks to be black in America.
But racism, like all types of suffering, is relative.
Last year I promised to choose change, to try and be a better person, and to look for the good in the world.
I’m not always up to it, but today as I was working on my business plan, setting goals for my future, it suddenly occurred to me how profoundly blessed I am to be black in a country where owning a business can be more than a pipe dream, where people who look like me have adequate buying power to be considered a market segment, and where people who don’t look like me enthusiastically purchase and promote my brand.
When you think about it, being black in America, as bad as it is, is significantly better than being black most anywhere else in the world (except maybe Canada. Canada rocks!)
Don’t believe me?
Let’s look at the facts.
We already know that 62 people make more than half of the world combined. Now let’s look at where the poor people live:
Urban population living in slums:
Slums. Not ghettos...
Slums.
Now look at where people live on less than $2 per day:
Now look at where people are starving:
Now look at where people don’t live very long:
Seeing a pattern yet?
But Ajah, you might ask, what about those countries that are always in the Blue or Grey? Surely it can’t suck to be black everywhere!
Hmm, ok.
Let’s take Italy for example. They have a concept of Esterofilia, or a love of all things foreign. Yet it didn’t stop them from creating this awesome(ly racist) cartoon:
[Hint...teach your children racism from the cradle. It sticks better that way!]
Esterofilia is also some small comfort to Cecile Keyenge, Italy’s first black government minister. Fellow members of government threatened her with violence and likened her to an orangutan. Citizens threw bananas at her on her way to work on building a better Italy.
This article profiles a Bolivian writer and filmmaker in Australia and the racism she experienced while living there. If a hot, smart Bolivian wasn’t feeling the love, I doubt ‘chocolate me’ would fare much better.
I won’t even discuss blacks living in Asia, where pale skin and waiflike physiques are the standard of beauty.
Even in Brazil, where blacks are the majority of the population, discrimination is rampant, and hate crimes against black trans women are everyday occurrences.
Chew on this: Brazil is 51% black. Yet they have ONE prime time TV show with black leads.
We have Scandal, Blackish, the Carmichael show, Empire, Rosewood, The Daily Show, The Nightly Show, Little Big Shots, Truth Be Told, CHicago Med, Chicago Fire, Orange is the New Black, How to Get Away With Murder, Underground, and many, many more.
They have: Mister Brau, which is basically an evening soap about Brazil’s Jay-Z and Beyonce.
Sisters living in the UK routinely pay up to $20 for a single pack of kanekalon braiding hair.
Outside of Canada, no (developed) country seems to love and accept black beauty as much as the United States.
Don’t get me wrong, we have our problems-- the black community still doesn’t have much significant power in the States, but we do have influence, both locally and globally.
When America is at his worst and I wonder if it’s worth it to keep fighting (versus immigrating to Canada), I remember this:
Black and Brown people across the diaspora look to me and other Americans of African descent to forge a path, shoot for the stars and fail like lightning; dream; defy; demand; debate; to be beautifully, loudly, unapologetically black.
To be free.
No comments:
Post a Comment