Should racists be given attention?
The highly racist society that is england was on colourful display last Sunday in the final of euro 2020.
It is public knowledge that three black members of the England football squad were subjected to racial abuse on social media, which required a pushback even from quarters that initially did not condemn racism when they had the chance to.
England’s frock tail was on full display. It was not the first time, and it will absolutely not be the last.
Pity for black people has been around for decades. The killing of George Floyd just over a year ago by a policeman, who has since been sent to prison for the act, was the clearest indication that more respect would be shown to the cause of black people, and even the taking of the knee by some at various events, mainly sports ones, would have heightened the consciousness.
Yet, there remain many white people who will stop at nothing to try and demonstrate their ‘superiority’ as a race. My thing is: Let them continue.
I am a proud black man, and no one of any other colour is better than me. When calls are made for black people to be shown respect by their white colleagues it smacks of a potion of inferiority being injected into black people — a kind of cry for equality when equality is right there already reserved for them.
In all my travels I have never felt that an individual of any race has an advantage over me. If anyone is trying to use racism over me, it is to his detriment, not mine because I know who I am and what I stand for.
Mind you, there are situations that I would try to avoid, if they present themselves. One example was years ago when I and other Jamaicans were pursuing a programme of journalism study at the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill campus, and one evening four of us students, and one lecturer, a white man, attempted to enter a sports bar not far from the university’s entrance.
We were told by a dude at the entrance, working as a bouncer, with a growl: ‘No blacks’. The fellow must have been over 300 pounds and it made no sense arguing. We turned around and went right back on campus. The lecturer kept repeating as we returned: “I want to apologise on behalf of my race.” We fully understood his situation.
I am not one of those with an interest in walking the street and seeking to be recognised as a black man. That recognition came at birth.