Mud slides in Sierra Leone, floods in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, terror attacks in Burkina Faso and Spain. This week’s news around the world has been especially depressing.
However I want to address what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia. The level of ugliness displayed by white nationalist, clinging on to their so-called cultural heritage and southern identity was so appalling that it almost made you want to give up on humanity.
As if that wasn’t enough, some of these nationalists had to try and insult our intelligence in the process. I can’t lie, after those events, with all the news coverage it was hard to feel safe, just walking around and going to work and back home.
It was also hard to look at white people and not have paranoid thoughts even though I know better. Of course not every white person is racist, but after seeing white nationalists (supremacists, let’s call it what it is, because I feel like the media is chewing words here) neo-Nazis and Klansmen march openly in 2017, I was shook.
The events in Charlottesville sparked other protest across North America: There was one in Boston on Saturday, and also here in Vancouver, where anti-immigration and anti-Islam groups were scheduled to march on the same day. Both marches were mostly peaceful, with a few arrests here and there, as the law-enforcement departments’ involved had learned from what happened in Virginia.
Watching these two protests take place made me realize that there is still hope. From the anti-racist protesters who were out in full force in Charlottesville (RIP Heather Heyer), to the pro-immigration group and counter-protesters who vastly outnumbered the people rallying against Islam, diversity and inclusion.
Also there’s what’s been happening in France with Cedric Herrou, a French farmer who is in hot water with the government, for smuggling migrants across the Italian border, and helping them seek asylum in France. When you see that, it’s obvious that he can’t be racist.
For every racist, prejudiced person, there are even more people who are good hearted and exactly against that. And in 2017 there is a huge wave of complete intolerance for bigotry and racism. Confederate monuments are being threatened nationwide in the US and some have even been pulled down the hard way, as was the case in Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s time to face reality and really stop revering symbols that represent ANYTHING traumatic to a race, culture or group of people.
Last but not least, I agree with a post I saw on actress, writer and producer Lena Dunham’s Instagram: “All white people are responsible for the upholding of white supremacy and for the fall of it.” I believe a point has been reached where simply stating that you’re not racist is no longer enough. As Charlamagne Tha God says: “ All white people who are decent human beings and don’t have a racist bone in their body must use their privilege to combat prejudice period…prove it through action.”
As for us black people and people of color in general; we can’t expect other people to help if we’re not willing to do right by ourselves first. So let’s keep celebrating ourselves, our culture, our history, our heritage, our excellence. Let’s keep consistently and vehemently calling out every instance of racism, prejudice, hatred and bigotry. Whether overt or not.