Human Excellence

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"The tragedy of human life, is its past, the challenge to human life, is what to do to move forward. This is what made the likes of Mandela, they took the challenge instead of hanging on to the past. We must recognise the need to not necessarily forget the past, but to forgive, in order build a new society."

Yasir Arman.

There was once a time in America, when the black man did not share the same voting rights as the white man, he could not use the same bathrooms or live in the same neighbourhood. In the bus, the black man had to sit at the back or stand on the bus and give up his seat to the white man, while waiting for a train, they did not share the same waiting area and his kids, they could not go to the same schools as those of the white man... In South Africa, the year 1948 saw the enactment of Apartheid laws, which put racial discrimination into full force. The black man did not have the same job opportunities as the white man and a marriage between the two was prohibited by the laws passed, among others. Simply put, the black man, was a second class citizen. December 1, 1955 would mark the beginning of the great movement to end legal segregation in America. This was the day Rosa Parks, tired of giving in, refused to give up her seat on the orders of the bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white passenger, and, after years of struggle and defiance of the apartheid laws, the ANC under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, led South Africa to it's first multi-racial elections in 1994. 

The likes of Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Chris Hani, Malcolm X, Mahatma Ghandi, Ismail Meer, Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King, among others, all fought for one similar goal, EQUALITY. Fair treatment of all individuals as human beings and the sharing of equal rights by all. They fought to see the day no man would be above another, the day the black/coloured man would be free and the end of "white supremacy". Nelson Mandela and the ANC's vision at first is said to have been limited, only seeking to unite and gain independence for the African people, but with the help of Ismail Meer, they developed the understanding that others were not different, it did not matter that one was not African(coloured, indian or white), at the end of the day, they were fighting for the same cause. As a result they became open to the idea of working with the coloured and Indian people. 

These heroes did not fight for the supremacy of one race, but for the equality of all race. After years of standing for what they believed in, they succeeded in doing so and it is as a result of their persistence that I, as a black person, can freely share my views and opinions on this blog today. This now brings me to the point of this post. I'd be the most ignorant person to claim that racism doesn't exist anymore, sure it does, but how you deal with it is what matters. Today i'm not here to talk about white on black racism, but instead, black on white racism. 

The same black people who a few years back and at some parts of the world still seek equality and a break away from racism, have become racist themselves. On YouTube, a lot of times I see black people take it upon themselves to leave racist comments, and it really raises just one question, are you any better than any of these individuals out there that you call racist? There are songs out there speaking out against "black on black murder", claiming the black man is not your enemy and when you kill the black man you're taking down someone "who looks just like you". So does that make black on white murder ok because you look different? Some people feel that our past, gives us the right and justifies such low actions, I'm here to tell you IT DOESN'T! Your history should seek to make you a better person, it should inspire a move away from the things that caused suffering in the past. Besides, Two wrongs, have never made a right!

As one Shakespeare MwAfrica said, "...this life is too plastic, the woman or the clothes?", people have chosen to focus on appearance, rather than substance. In an interview with Ebony Magazine, Samuel L Jackson said, "I voted for Barack because he's black. 'Cause thats why other folks vote for other people, because of they look like them... [Obama's] message didn't mean [bleep] to me". So Jackson, could have been voting in another Hitler, Jong-II or Al-Assad for all he knew, but obviously this didn't matter as long as he looked like him(got to respect his honesty though). On Tumblr, one individual chose to rant on about how "one of the white guys" was holding up the Kenyan flag during the 2012 olympics ceremony and that this was wrong because Kenya is a "black nation", completely disregarding the fact that these were professional swimmers who had earned their place in the Kenya olympics team. (via. I AM KENYAN PROJECT)

People, black people, still hold on to the mentality that the white man is your enemy. We must understand that the era where the world was dominated by one race no longer exists. We need to stop dividing ourselves racially, and start looking at one another as one race, the human race. Most importantly, we need to realise that we are, our very own greatest enemies by taking the time to look at some of the problems we have caused ourselves, through our own actions. Take the Rwandese genocide, the Kenyan post election violence or the Sudanese Civil war for instance. Were these atrocities committed by a white man? 

We need to put an immediate end to xenophobia and stereotyping. The Iraqi war, for example, was not caused by the white race, it was caused by a few individuals with power, the power to manipulate the the masses into believing an attack had been launched against the U.S and that they were simply defending themselves and their honor by sending troops into Iraq. World politics is now wrapped around the hands of few individuals, they are those individuals that you will never hear about, or if you do, it will be years after a tragedy. The rest of us, well, we are all just victims to the same system that seeks to manipulate mankind so we must wake up because we must build a new society and not repeat the same mistakes of the past. 

Now don't get me wrong, I am by all means encouraging you, and insist that you must take pride in who you are and where you come from but in the process, do not overlook others. Instead, acknowledge their existence, as people of equal being and look at that as the beauty of the world we live in. Let us learn from each other, educate each other on our different cultures, have a laugh together at how the Brit guy says "Jambo" or how the typical African guy says "pot'ah'to"(potato) and take pride in these things. Let us find unity, in diversity. 

You'd be surprised how much easier life is when you simply appreciate the things that come your way instead of digging deep for things that are completely unnecessary. For a wise man once said, "No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin... People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite"... So don' be a hater :p   

FIGHT THE SYSTEM, RESPECT THE RACE :)

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