Musings With Olulana: Thoughts On The Propaganda War Over Race In America

 

Newcomers to the war about race involving Caucasians and African Americans will be told many half-truths and given a skewed perspective by both sides of the divide; depending on where their loyalties lie, this propaganda will project the false perspective into their consciousness ushering them into a defense of one of either side of the divide. Africans will do well to understand what is really going on and apply what they learn to their own uniquely situated communities.

 

A popular false narrative involves statistics of Black on Black crime – murders mainly. Everytime there is protest by the Black community over perceived injustice against them by law enforcement or other races, this statistic is waved in their faces with the refrain, "what have you been doing about Black people murdering Black people?" It is supposed to make them realize that their priorities are misplaced, effectively shutting them up. I know this ploy works because I often read African Americans using this same argument to try and get their people to focus on the ills of their community. The argument is also used against Africans living in Africa. "They are just killing themselves." How about those murderers in Europe and Japan who are not Africans? Conveniently ignored?

 

I have never heard the same question thrown at Caucasians or Hispanics when they get vocal about incidents involving African American perpetrators and their community even though White on White crime is in the same high percentages as is Hispanic on Hispanic crime! Ah! Yes! People are more likely to kill those they know so obviously, Black on Black crime percentages will be higher than White on Black crime. Likewise the percentage of White on White crime is higher than Black on White crime. Ditto Hispanic percentages.

 

If you suspect that overused narrative is a smokescreen, you got it! However, once someone important in their own minds like former Mayor of New York, Rudy Juliani throws that red herring just as he did a few months ago, magically,  this falacy assumes some sort of validity and many fall in line, using it to excuse the crime which led to the Black community reacting in the first place. Usually an incident of White on Black crime or injustice done to a person of color is the catalyst. The idea is to deflect blame from the perpetrator to the victim. Many still fall for this old trick unfortunately.

 

The fact that African Americans have been on the receiving end of racism and its evil tentacles for centuries has given many of them 'color blindness' and they do not see the racist tendencies within their own communities. I refer to the definition of racism which involves a discriminatory or abusive attitude towards others of another race in this instance because African Americans do not have the social status or financial capability in America to be the oppressors which is absolutely intrinsic to other definitions of racism. Such abilities were and are systematically removed from them and denied to them by the White majority. Sad but true. In Africa, we know this discrimination as tribalism.

 

This has led to extreme prejudice against any person of color who is perceived to be supportive of Caucasians in any way or accusatory of actions by African Americans in this race war. They are derisively dismissed as "uncle Toms" which is the worst insult an African American can use on a fellow African American because to call someone by that term is to label them as a traitor to the cause of their own people. In effect you are categorizing them as slaves who "sold" their brethren to their owners again so they could live more comfortable lives at the extremities of the slave owners household.

 

For example, if a black brother or sister tries to inform the African American community that its failure to check the gangsta culture and disdain of formal education by the inner city population has affected very negatively its ability to gain ground in America, that person is very likely going to be chased out of town by his own people even though it is the truth. Of course there are other factors leading to and sustaining this sad trend and even though effort has been and is being made by some groups to reverse it, enough has not been done by those who use violent incidents as bait for a tactical assault on the race war.

 

The neophyte observer will be taken aback when this interplay goes on as it is right now within the highly strung atmosphere due to the murder of those nine people in Emmanuel AME Church by a 21 year old racist. Social media threads, news media forums and chat rooms are rife with heated debates that devolve into exchange of abuse that usually ends with statements such as, "why don't you focus on the murders of young people in Chicago!" or "the fact that mass murderers are predominantly young white males should tell you something about your people!"

 

African and Caucasian European immigrants to America often find it perplexing to understand how Americans from their respective races think and react which often leads them to pass judgement on either party based on their subjective perspective of how races interact. Most African immigrants were never made to feel like second class citizens to another race in their own countries even if they were extremely poor! They didn't have another race dominating them unless you came from countries where Apertheid was practiced. Europeans are usually more tolerant of Blacks and have willingly intermingled with them to greater extent than Americans for longer periods. Yes,  there are exemptions such as Skin Head groups all over Europe but they are in the minority.

 

This general background makes it difficult for many to empathize with an enraged Black community losing control like they did during the Ferguson and Baltimore riots or the White community being extremely defensive and not willing to accept that racism actually exists, exemplified in calls for the removal of affirmative action across the board. They too must realize that this truth applies to them…

 

If you have not walked in my shoes, do not dare try to  condemn me for what I do. Rachel Dolezal, the Caucasian woman masquerading as African American tried to steal an experience that was never hers to own and she paid the price for that horrible judgement call. You need to walk in those shoes.

 

There might be a discordant tone from some who read this article. Those in Africa may reflect and think, how does this concern me? Well, underlying factors that affect people with different shapes of skin color also are at play in the different ethnicities of Nigeria and other African nations. Lessons learned from the color wars in A merica can be applied to ethnic wars in Nigeria and Africa at large.

 

The world is now a global village that is shrinking smaller every year!