Black Matters

If you want to get rid of a people, eliminate their men.
An age old formula that even Pharaoh of ancient times knew.

A few years ago, I attended my high school reunion somewhere in London.
I got lost trying to find my way and as I walked around trying to locate the address,
I heard someone running behind me.
I turned around to see a young black boy of about 13 years of age.
My first thoughts were “Please don’t stab me” 
And then I recoiled with horror at my thoughts.

I realised how I’d come to believe media stereotypes of how blackness was to be feared,
Especially if it came in a masculine packaging.
Even scarier is the fact that I am myself a black woman who had grown up in a black nation.
Where none of these concepts existed; yet even I was not impervious to subliminal brain washing.

Someone close to me recently had a baby
When I went to visit, she remarked “but he’s so blaaack!”
That was the day I threw away all my skin lightening creams.