Racism is often described as irrational hatred and
discrimination of people based on race. It is however deeper than that
as it is a movement aimed at "justly" putting a certain race at the peak
so that other races remain at the bottom of the race ladder.
History
seems to have painted the "white man" as the most racist, evil creature
on earth. In emphasis, he is blamed for the trans Atlantic slave trade,
bitter segregation years, KKK, apartheid in South Africa and so on. The
most disturbing and not-so- recent is the recurrent death of black
Americans in police custody which is one major source of uproars amongst
blacks of all countries and continents in and out of social media. The
racism topic is the ultimate topic of discussions especially among young
Nigerian "intellectuals".
However, The irony of
sharing the sentiment of white racism is that the black man walks with a
more malignant strain of the racism disease, tribalism. The Xenophobic
attacks against other africans in south Africa, the Hutu-Tutsi genocide
in Rwanda and on more familiar grounds, the cat-rat relationship between
tribes in Nigeria is enough grease to clean. The sympathetic African is
like the man in the proverb who forgets to quench the fire burning his
house while tending to affairs that do not concern him.
In
Nigeria, terrible stereotypes, ethnic bigotry even among learned men
and women is the embarrassing trend today. The Yoruba thinks he is
superior because he isn't as dubious as the ibo man and the Hausa is
just backward. The ibo also share this same sentiment because he isn't
as dirty as the Yoruba or Hausa man, the average Nigerian also thinks
every Edo female is a blood sucking witch. Amusingly, psychological and
sociological behaviours are now being blamed on tribal origins.
As
petty as these stereotypes maybe, marriages, relationships and even
official positions have been marred by people that believe strongly in
these things. People now only elect and employ others based on tribal
sentiments.
The most dangerous factor is the
justification of these statements and actions by educated men and women
who have met and lived with people of all tribes who conveniently omit
the lesson of no two men are exactly the same in character. This
superiority complex is akin to racism and is a ticking time bomb as
these ideologies are being planted in and taught to little children.
Hate messages, war, division and bigotry are now being broadcast to
Nigerians via the infamous radio biafra.
Finally,
Nigeria is made up of over 250 tribes made to become a single country
because, amalgamation. Ergo, the choices lie between working together to
make things better, or simply refusing to look down our noses and watch
things get worse in the country.
Maryam Atoyebi is a biochemist with deep love for books, arts, landscape photography and chicken sharwama
0 comments:
Post a Comment