A common phenomenon among nations, an ancient problem that most countries of the world battle whether, a topic that has turned to verses, stanzas, paragraphs, chapters, books and even plays in the hands of many talented and conscious poets, play wrights and writers, a word that has inspired the songs of the likes of Michael Jackson, Jean Wyclef, Bob Marley, Lucky Dube and our own Fela Anikulapo Kuti, one of the major factors that motivated the world wars, a global issues that has left millions dead. All these attributes and others that are not obvious describe nothing than the “little but mighty” six letter word, Racism.
According to The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Racism is “the belief that people’s qualities are influenced by their race and that the members of other races are not as good as the members of your own, or the resulting unfair treatment of members of other races.”
History teaches us of how Africans and American Indians were treated unjustly even in their homeland by European colonialists, how black slaves were taken to American plantations to serve wealthy white men, we also learnt from history of how one’s colour determines one’s position on the social ladder irrespective of your wealth or academic background during the colonial periods. There is no any other reasons for these acts than what we all know but recognize as irrelevant at times; Racism. The need to divide the society has always made every community employ racism as the tool of division. Racism has always been a major cause of crisis in every multi-racial society. The racist apartheid system of government in South Africa led to clashes of interest among the native Africans and the white colonialists. Interacting with literature from the apartheid period of South Africa, one will be motivated to condemn the colonialists. But before you are quick to judge kindly consider this question; am I not a racist myself? Obviously, you are not.
“I cant be friends with Ola, she is ugly and dull, I cant imagine myself being a friend with someone like her” we have at one time or the other, uttered statements similar to these. You may want to defend yourself with excuses like “I have my clique”, “I can’t be everybody’s friend” or “there is nothing bad in barring a short ugly lady or guy from your friend list” but these statements lead us to nowhere else than the act of racism.
Even among people of the same nationality, Racism exists. A man from western Nigeria would prefer to have someone from the west as friend, marital partner, employer or employee thanks to racism. His counterparts from other parts of the country will also take delight in this act of racism. There is also the racism of intelligibility among students. Students of the court business and medicine profession tend to view students from other departments as inferior especially when offering a course with students from other departments. The future is super blurry if, at this training stage, the future of the society (youths) cannot peacefully co-exist with one another all in the name of superiority. What will happen to the future of Nigeria and the world at large if youths do not see the evil in racism no matter how small or big?
You can start thinking of a fraction of the society that you cannot find a bit of racism? Obviously, you can’t find any. Racism, whether big, medium or little is present in almost every part of the society. It is sad that religion is not immune to racism. The warrior that ought to give us hope when racism and its fruits rant is now its playmate. In many religious institutions today, your wealth determines your place in the institution. The chances of a poor man in most churches, mosques and even shrines are very slim. Before you throw missiles of insults at me, I am also a Christian but we should not pretend as if nothing is wrong when millions of things are wrong.
Racism is like a mosquito; it feeds deeply on us and leaves no positive effect on us. It affects psychologically, emotionally, financially and the most negative of it is the death of innocent souls. Approximately, 1,000,000 people lost their lives between April 7 and July15, 1994 in the Rwandan Genocide, The magnitude of death toll during the Nigerian civil war cannot be denied, many more lives are being lost in the Israel – Gaza rift. The unjust and indiscriminate killing by Boko Haram in the northern part of Nigeria and other major contemporary conflicts caused by racism cannot be swept under the carpet. For how long shall we use racism as excuses to create “balance” or “justice” in the society?
If races do not unite, the world will never be a better place. It begins with you, me, them and us. Cast out that racist in you and embrace love for people irrespective of their colour, intellect, tribe and above all, race.
PENMAN
