Writing As An Antidote To Racism
I write about racism to not feel too helpless in the face of racism.
I haven’t had an easy life. There have been more moments of utter pain and suffering than of unbridled happiness. Some experiences have left me in the deepest depths of despair, but somehow, I have always awoken to face another day with renewed energy, resilience, optimism, and determination.
Through it all, one thing that has always stood by me, has always kept me going no matter what: my writing.
When I have gone through the darkest moments of my life – like my brother’s sudden and brutal death in 2016, my writing has stood beside me gently nurturing me back to the world of the living, to life.
Writing is essential to me – like the air that I breathe, the water I drink, the food I eat. Without writing I do not exist.
I started writing on Medium a few months ago. I felt an injustice deep within me that was growing and becoming impossible to repress.
It was the injustice of racism and how it has taken and spoilt so many lives. I realized how much of a toll it had taken on my own life. And when I started to count the number of times it has robbed me of so many experiences and opportunities, I cried for days on end.
I remember when I left school full of dreams to become a television journalist. During my first year of college, we visited the French national television studio in Switzerland.
I excitedly raised my hand to ask about job opportunities and was told they did not hire black people for in front of the camera roles because the Swiss population wasn’t ready yet. It’s been 35 years since that episode and I still don’t see a black presenter on Swiss television, I guess they are still not ready. Sometimes I wonder if they ever will be.
And then there are the daily microaggressions I speak about in my articles here on this platform. The fact that I am often talked over, not taken seriously, not promoted, and not respected.
Just this weekend, I decided to pull out of a business venture with someone I know because whenever I voiced my opinion about our business strategy, he repeatedly questioned my ideas, experience, and…
