How long will we blame white people?
The title isn’t a rhetorical question it’s an actual one. Because the “blame white people for everything narrative, 50-60 years after independence swept Africa and 40 years after it swept Antigua and the Caribbean is getting thin.
I’m not trivialising racism, or inequality or am I justifying the obvious horrors that black people have faced. George Floyd was 2020.
However in every healing journey we must take some measure of self reflection and responsibility.
60 years after independence “white people did not make us poor” there are about “1.4 billion Africans, we have the young population compared to 0.8 billion Europeans. We have the numbers, we have the right demographics, we have the natural resources, why are we still poor?
Answer. Self hatred. Black people hate other black people. White people don’t have to do much, they just give us the guns and let us fight ourselves to extinction meanwhile they pocket the natural resources at knock down prices. Plus gain a few “white saviour” pictures for their kids on a gap year.
Then we have the answer. “The black community!!!” Aww hell no. Black community may work for some people, but in my experience, there are, in every community, givers and takers. I have come from a long line of “givers” and have no interest in becoming another lifelong sucker. Community has to benefit me in some way and I’m yet to see the fruits.
Personal hate. When a black man wants something off you, you are “his sister.” When he is the one in position of power he will cross the street to avoid you. The black community needs to change, we need it to stop being spearheaded by women, for the benefit of men who hate us. Its abusive.
We need another term for it too. No to Black power, it sounds too Malcom X (I don’t condone violence) so I propose, “black homes matter” Home, is an important term. Its where the heart is and people do all sorts of things for their home, like take pointless trips to TK MAXX. But the truth is, Black people aren’t going anywhere until we learn to love one another, myself included. I have a lot of time and energy to talk about the problems I grew up seeing and the “wickedness of black men” I’ve tried understanding them, humanising them. They are creepy towards me. Always something predatory and its either sex or money they want out of me, both if they can have it. I remember when my dad was dying a family friend came to see us from Kent. My dad was literally on his death bed not 10ft away and this man was preying on me not 1 week before my dad died with his wife in the same room. Disgusting.
White people are merely doing to us what we’d do to them if the tables are turned. Its all well and good acting morally superior like we’d do differently but the truth is that slavery was a part of West Africa before the Europeans came and there were chiefs that benefitted from it so they made it part of their culture to keep slaves. Sure, they didn’t know that the White people were going to put their slaves on a boat for 4 months in horrendous conditions and then essentially work them to death, however they merrily sent their countrymen to their deaths en masse. White people were the executioner, but it was the chiefs that read out the sentence.
But most of all, we need to get out of the victim mentality. I’ve met guys who have never seen out of London talk about how their ancestors were slaves and that that was the reason they weren’t doing well for themselves. First of all, their ancestors weren’t even slaves. Next those people were slaves 200 years ago and every generation since has fought for better rights, right up to now, the pinnacle of our rights journey so far. My great uncle would have killed for the rights we have now. My dad too when he was working. Things are getting better for us and even though it is still hard we need to get out of the victim mentality before it destroys us. My dad was a fish out of water because he was told “black people are only good for the 3 D’s. Drink, dance and Destroy. As a black academic, there was no place for him even in his own culture. How many times have I, the most studious girl in the class been asked at a PE lesson, or a music lesson. “Oh, you must be good at this because your black.” No, I must be good at Maths and Science because I’m Annetta, how exactly has the colour of my skin got to do with the musical notes? My ancestors were slaves, therefore they didn’t have time for creative pursuits, whilst working in sugar plantations??? We mustn’t stereotype ourselves because it allows white people to stereotype us and it also encourages “pick me” culture. Where we have limits and we have to hide who we are as black people to show “we’re not like other black people” No we’re not because “Black people” are too wide a group too stereotype. There are calm ones, angry ones, musical ones, academic ones, happy ones, melancholy ones. Therefore there isn’t a way of saying “I’m not like other black people” because you haven’t tried the 1.4 billion of us that there are. “Pick me” comes from low self-esteem and self-hatred. Own who you are. Who you are is beautiful.
Finally, lets talk about scarcity mentality. Africa’s problem is greed. We are stupidly rich in natural resources but the money for it is sitting in Swiss bank accounts. We have a 1% that has enough money that if they stopped stealing right now, their descendants of the 12th generation still won’t have spent it all. We don’t share the wealth because we believe its either me or him, there’s no situation where we can all win. Politicians hate their countries, living in gated communities whilst the people starve. In the 60’s 70’s and 80’s the de- literacy of Western Africa was a human rights abuse. There I can blame the west. As humans they saw the human rights abuses, correctly calculated that this would lead to an illiterate population that would accept low wages and instead of calling on African leaders to educate their children…they waited until more than 50% of the population was illiterate and then went on in offering low wages. The economic fallout of mismanagement of independence from the very beginning meant that children who should have been in school stopped going and they became illiterate, and they have gone on to have children and grandchildren, all illiterate because politicians underfunded the schools and pocketed the money. As a result the whole country is poorer as these kids aren’t living up to their full potential and the politicians have to steal even more to keep up appearances. It goes on and on. Remind me again how that is white people’s fault?
These problems will not be solved in my lifetime, nor the lifetimes of my grandchildren, but I hope to one day hear the black community say with one voice. “We need to stop blaming white people for our problems.”
Grace and Courage.
Annetta Mother Smith