This piece was published on our blog and on our Facebook group on the 24th f June.

I want to talk about racism in general and why we should fight it ! The first thing to know about racist ideologies is that they are false ! The genes don’t make people smarter nor good nor bad nor harsh nor lean nor mannered … (If this still requires proof, you just have to see the people from different origins that are adopted by families in different countries … The adoptive children will grow up to be from the country and the place they grew up in … For example a Korean or Angolan child brought up by Brazilian parents in Brazil will grow up to be Brazilian … He will have nothing in common with Koreans or Angolans). The biggest part of a human being is his personality and his ideologies, beliefs and opinions, which are determined by his personal history and his environment which includes his friends, family and his culture. When you see the huge differences between families from the same place and the differences between everyone’s histories, you will get a grasp of how unique every person is. You may try to think about the persons you personally know, knew and grew up with to give you an idea. If you then consider how every person has different attitudes, understanding and approaches to his own beliefs (besides his own personal believes) and different attitudes to his own culture (Take for example the relationship to cultural behaviour (Being friendly with your neighbours for example) … Some consider it a duty, some do it with pleasure and enjoy it, some do it but they hate doing it and some don’t do it at all or avoid it ...) and if you consider the differences in opinions, dreams and aspirations of every person you will have an even better idea of the uniqueness of every person. Racism is based on assumptions, on broad ideas and generalizations. Sometimes a small minority of a people (which can be insignificant in numbers) behaving in a certain way gives a bad name to a whole people or group. Racism tends to summarize human beings into a series of assumptions (given ideas) related to his origins or to the colour of his skin that are simply false ! The simplest way to realize this is to remember the people you grew up with, in the same city/town, in the same street than you ! Were you all the same ? Can you think about a trait, a behaviour or an attitude that is shared by everybody in your street in the same way ? Racism tries to summarize and dehumanize people by making statements that make everybody in your street identical and behaving in the same way.

Ultimately, being from somewhere only means probably knowing the customs, language and culture of that place … and probably loving some of those things and hating some others … which things you love and which you hate is specific to every person ...

Racism is used by 

· people who have a lack of self-confidence or self-esteem as a solution to their insecurities about their own value and their own worth (to feel good about themselves) or

· people who want to release charges of negative feelings (hatred, anger) accumulated in other situations where they found themselves in weak positions and could not defend themselves (with the boss, the wife/husband, the police …) … they do so on minorities who are discriminated against, who cannot defend themselves …

That is why racism is wrong ! It is the propagation of hatred and fear in society (which are the main poison to any society or to any human being) ! Racists are cowards who cannot face their own problems and solve them ! They therefore hassle and harm people who cannot defend themselves (minorities discriminated against)

It would be great if in Africa we stopped discriminating against each other, valued and respected our diversity which is our treasure and that can be a great help for our development. We could then be able to come together to do good and positive things for our countries and our societies !

About Racism

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About Racism