Is This Really a Black Revolution?
There’s an entire world out there who would say no.
I see it. I really do. I turn on the TV and see more black people on commercials than I’ve ever seen in my life. I see how we turned out en masse to support Black Panther and turned that into an all-time blockbuster. I see the steps being taken to make sure that inclusiveness includes people of colour.
More importantly, I feel the revitalized sense of pride that we as a people have restored in ourselves and in each other. The way we speak, the unapologetic way in which we describe our blackness, the love that we’re spreading isn’t this amorphous, fragmented, thing. It’s like an eternal sunshine that’s giving life to us all.
I love it. But can I just remind everyone that this is a North American thing. That this “renaissance” we’re experiencing is limited to our borders. Because I’m pretty sure that there are millions of BLACK people starving in East Africa. STARVING, with nearly no food or no food at all. This is happening right now.
Can I remind everyone that just last month, 110 Nigerian girls were kidnapped. Yes, KIDNAPPED. Stolen from their school, no less, likely by Boko Haram, who just four years ago kidnapped close to 300 young girls in the same fashion.
I’ll stop here, because I can give dozens more examples. My point is not to burst anyone’s bubble. Of course we should celebrate the small (yes, small) victories we’re achieving in moving the needle forward here in North America. But let’s not kid ourselves. This isn’t a black revolution, this is a Black-American revolution. And with the incremental changes that have been made so far, using the word revolution is probably a bit premature and misleading.
It’s More than just Race
My other point is to show that our struggle and oppression goes far deeper than the racism we fight in the western world. Power, corruption, religion, hate, fear; these are all factors crippling our people that aren’t primarily driven by race. Is race a factor in these atrocities? I’d say somewhat. But there are entire layers to these events that are devoid of the race construct.
I say that to say this: perspective matters. Understand that as small as technology has made the world, it’s still a big place with lots of good, but too much bad. When we say things like, “this is a black renaissance,” let’s not be insensitive to the fact that there are entire hemispheres that might not share that opinion.
CRY
