A tad too sensitive?

I’d bet every African has lived the pain of colour through the centuries. Like me, they may have lived it through movies, history books, fiction and biographies. As much as I like to think myself strong, I never watch these movies/read these books without shedding tears – I mean wailing.

The movie ‘Roots’ (the one with Kunta Kinte) was a classic. I only watched it once (on betamax), but distressing pictures of people being thrown into the sea from the slave ships stayed with me forever. When you add a scene that includes babies suffering in these stories – I’d be fully messed up, I’d cry till my nose is dripping.

These said, the sufferings of blacks under colonial masters or discrimination years after aren’t to be downplayed – not by me or anyone else. The scars were very deep, the stories too sad. When I was much younger, everything a Caucasian did had a racial undertone to me. I couldn’t let any slightly rude word from a Caucasian go scot-free. I must have appeared a crazy young lady.

One incident I really remember was going to a particular cosmetic brand’s store in 2001 looking to buy a face powder for my skin shade – they didn’t have (I don’t know if they do now), the attendant said to me ever so politely that they didn’t have powder for my ‘shade.’ I unleashed a big lecture on how they should keep a sign saying we do not serve ‘people of colour…’ the young girl of course turned beet red, couldn’t make out why my answer was so harsh in response to her simple statement.

I remember also going to a shop in the states with a friend, a fully plus-sized black lady was told they didn’t have an item in her size and then she went off with words of abuses on the Caucasian staff. A real loud ‘akata scream’ (akata is a word for African American woman). You know the scene I mean – the ones comedians act out – viral videos have caught real scenes of it. My friend was unhappy about the scene, saying the lady had just lived up to the typical stereotype of ‘angry black woman.’

Only then did I realise that even I was tending towards this phase. It surprised me how the very people who suffered high depths of racism often spoke to the rest about forgiveness and love – I mean Madiba is our living example. Living as an angry person is simply wrong. My very favourite quote is about anger ‘resting in the bosom of fools.’

Many years on and most blacks insist racism is still present, just more refined. A former colleague says to me in discussing this that ‘this type of situation is everyday reality for others, so I mustn’t make light of it.’ He might be right, but I do often wonder if we also don’t get a bit too sensitive? Two weeks ago was the Oprah matter – Oprah (media mogul/most influential woman in the world) had gone to a shop retailing handbags in Switzerland. She had enquired about seeing the higher-end bags in the inner shelves and was told she couldn’t afford it. Cut to one week after, the shop owner is under media siege for reportedly telling Oprah the bag was too expensive for her. If this happened then it was wrong.

The media reports Oprah as saying she wasn’t wearing her makeup and was simply dressed. Might this explain why she didn’t pass the lady’s visual profiling test? Again, big as Oprah’s show is – it perhaps isn’t popular in Switzerland. I’d be interested to see how popular it is in Belfast or Scotland. To be honest, only Oprah and the lady know exactly what happened. However, I do think the whole matter was being theatrerised. tv.msnbc.com reports that Oprah herself has apologised, saying the situation was exaggerated. The shop owner has apologised. Very honourable of Oprah as always.

The truth is we also must take some flak for being too sensitive. There may be decades of history to justify it – but yes, we are sensitive. Not even Madiba or Obama’s emergence has cleansed that. I recall never missing Ojay Simpson’s trial years ago – I must have been an undergrad. It was my first reality TV show – watched everyday animatedly, waiting for him to be convicted of the crime I was so sure he committed. When the verdict was read and he was found not guilty it looked like the first election that elected a black president – too many cries of personal victory for blacks.

Till today, some of my friends still say they know he did it, but blacks just needed that victory. The lead investigators racist statement was awful – I recall it was all the defenders and jury needed. I read that there are still many cases in the states of the ‘cock crowed and the witch died’ in America and many non-English speaking parts of Europe. I’m sure it isn’t untrue, I’m still hoping along with millions of others that increasingly, people will be judged on their abilities, not colour, by their actions and not colour, that we in turn, will see no colour when we deal.

By: Nkiru Olumide-Ojo