Intolerance

I have wanted to write a piece on this topic ever since the Orlando shooting but I was so sad I actually laid in bed asking myself if it was worth it. will it change anything? How can another human being feel so superior that they feel they can own or redeem somebody else’s life? Need I remind you we all are struggling on this earth making our ways through it as much as we can and feel? Nobody knows it all about our stay down here but whatever. Last week in America two (2) black people got shot again and awaken the old demons hiding in the shadows, the war on race. I watched the videos and I couldn’t help but cry, I was so choked.  It was my first time seeing people die, not dead people but you know the transition from life to death and it is the worst ever (at least for me). I was (am) so angry, that in the 21^st century we still find excuses to kill a person because of their skin colour. So here I am still shaken but determine to write this for my own therapy.

I was always surprised that people would avoid, judge, kill and commit any kind of injustice on other people because they are different. When I think about it, I just tell myself they create a barrier of them and us and that fake barrier somehow help them pass judgements on others. I always thought that the only reason people discriminated against others is that, they could never be in their shoes. Once you can relate to someone, you can have empathy for the people but once you create a barrier dividing people, it is impossible. If people cannot understand LGTBQ society, it is because they never were like that and don’t even see themselves as ever being part of them. some will bring religion but I say that no matter what you are told or taught, you choose what you believe.

If other people cannot understand black people, it is they would probably never get the chance to be black, to live in that skin or reality. Here is a scoop for you: we haven’t chosen to be black or gay or whatever, it is not like we went to the grocery store and picked among the many options available, we are just who we are, and that we would be denied social benefits or even life for it is just plainly not fair (then again what is fair anyway).

In as much as I want to shout my rage against the stupidity our world is turning into, the feeling that really overwhelms me right now is disappointment. Here we are in the 21^st century with the best technologies ever made. There is no place on earth that hasn’t been visited, we know about almost every culture and globalisation even make every part of the world accessible to us, yet the very basics of human life: accepting others and living peacefully has not been achieved. What then is development? What are we developing? Buildings, infrastructures? If we have less patience for one another, do not tolerate and respect ourselves what is the point? Who are we building these empires for?

I am just disappointed, simply. I do not want to argue about it, find reasons or excuses as to whose fault it is and I am pretty aware that there are worst things happening around the world. I feel like telling my people to come back to Africa and forget about it all and then I realise they deserve every piece of that cake their grandparents built and paid the price for it. One of my very good friend (love you Emma) called me and said: so all that was fake? It was all a make-believe? It was just a façade we never were equals? We haven’t learnt from history? Anyway now we know.

I personally have made peace with racism, really… I neither have anger nor the urge to understand why it is so. I have accepted it: it just is. People find any excuse to dislike people: hair colour, tattoos, sexual orientation, religion so why would skin colour be spared? We even have different skull so technically we are different to the bone. We are so busy arguing for our own separate causes that we fail to see how we are destroying one another and driving this world to chaos. Maybe if we forget our own interest and start tolerating and accepting others, we could make this world a better place. I know it all sound idealistic, that it won’t happen overnight but it will definitely not happen if we all turn a blind eye on what is happening around us.

I won't be the first to say this nor the last but I will leave this here to add to the many words of wisdom already spoken.