Garth Rattray | Children of colour, how dare you!

Children of colour, how dare you assume that your chocolate-brown skin is beautiful, and that God blessed your ancestors in ancient Africa, a land that remains so bountiful! Some of your descendants were paled by eons of cold and sparse sunlight when they migrated to temporal zones. Yet some prejudge others, their sisters and brothers, only by their facial shape and varied skin tones.

I will never understand how physical appearance and trappings make some feel superior – how melanin alone relegated an entire race to be labelled inferior. So convincing is that bizarre misconception that it has persisted from generation to generation. It has clung and caused suffering and death, just like a stubborn and horrible infection.

Some are so convinced that their natural ebony beauty is a curse, that they see themselves as grotesque apparitions, and perhaps even worse. They project their self-hate onto others who look a lot like they do, and tear them down viciously, never to be rebuilt anew. Some even sold their own kind to be enslaved in a land very far away; chained and separated by miles of ocean, there they would forever stay.

Then less than human, these chattels, were beaten and worked until dead – the hundreds of years of torture have messed up each and every head. Can designated sub-humans be assimilated into that society? Will a new generation ever see the reality? People who are ripped from their motherland under dire and cruel conditions, are the victims, not the criminals, they’ve committed no infractions.

CONSIDERED EQUAL

Children of slaves, how dare you even think that you could be considered equal to people by whom you were once owned? Their laws claim that they’ve released you from the chains with which you were once bound. They say that a place in their society is there for you; they say that your freedom was lost, but now it’s found anew. Many of their promises have been broken, their words carry no guarantee. Everything about society says that you’ve got a long way to go before you are truly free.

There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when you were made part of a subjugated, disenfranchised, and downtrodden caste. Many rights and jobs were put way beyond you, some were beaten, tortured and brutally murdered too. You were despised, berated, and put in your place, all because you were born part of a beautiful race. Through suffering, patience, and hard work you’ve prevailed. Their efforts to break you, and then to destroy you have certainly failed.

Feeling rejected and becoming dejected lead to a subculture in which to hide. Alternate music, alternate dance, and alternate rules fill you with pride. Existing on the fringe of a society that does not care, gives some the incentive to do as they dare. But if you like a sore thumb stick out, you’ll be eliminated, of that there’s no doubt.

You are scrutinised and observed like specimens under a powerful microscope; so much more is expected from you, yet you dare to entertain hope. They’re just waiting for you to mess up, seemingly hoping that you will fail, hovering around, and longing to close your coffin, with that last nail. The weight of a stacked deck against you rests heavy on your mind. You know that you’re expected to be blighted, just like the rest of ‘your kind’.

ACQUIESCE

So many acquiesce, without giving themselves a fair chance. They descend into antisocial behaviour, and constantly with death dance. It’s easier to go for the alternative, than it is to try to conform to society’s ways. They make it difficult for you … it’s always nightmare nights and nightmare days. You are mostly represented in prisons, but they don’t really care. They spend more on incarceration than they do on assisting you, how can that be fair?

And even in some countries where you are governed by your own kind, there is a ‘malware’ always working quietly in your mind. It’s surreptitious, persistent, and pervasive you see, it’s whispering that despite all you’ve achieved, you’re to believe in your inferiority. And this plays out from the lowest to the highest in the land, it clings to some of us, just like a slavemaster’s brand.

Some absorb ‘White’ culture, and preferences, and even their social rules, they disregard our culture, disrespect our ancestors, and ‘bleach’ like ghouls. Some gravitate towards foreigners, thinking that they always know best; they undervalue our own talents, placing them way below the rest. It’s imported this, and imported that, and overseas this and overseas that … but they come at a cost, they are never free, they take control of our destiny.

And when we get the opportunity to back those that are home grown, we tend to support foreigners, anybody but our own. We somehow trust those with a lighter skin hue, and deny our own talented, then wonder why they never grew. Can any people be truly independent when controlled by foreign puppeteers? The conditionalities attached to loans, grants, and contracts bring well-thinking citizens to tears.

Despite centuries of oppression and denigration, how dare you persevere, how dare you stay strong? It’s because you know that you belong. Nobody is superior, we are all the same. Let no one belittle you, don’t be ashamed. Dare to be proud of all that you are, that’s when you’ll begin your journey, that’s when you’ll go far.

Garth Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice, and author of ‘The Long and Short of Thick and Thin’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.