Racism versus Growth

 The problem of racism today is not the fact that a certain group of people are being discriminated against on the basis of their race but rather, it is the fact that people tend to inject racism into everything that there is. It has become the reinterpretation of everything that exists. As long as something does not promote a certain narrative, it is automatically tagged as being racist. It has gotten to a point where the very people who claim to be discriminated against are the ones propagating the worst form of racism. They have forgotten their roots and have lost focus. They have little to no idea why they are fighting. In other words, they are fighting against something which is contrary to what they think it is. In fact, they are now fighting a different fight, one which is not theirs and which is rather counter productive. Whether or not they have noticed the adverse effects of their actions is questionable but one thing remains clear and that is the fact that they love the results of their actions. For the most part, these people are fighting not for what is being done but for what was being done to people they might have only heard about.

This parasite of a fight has infested every sphere of life from religion(where you have some so called preachers calling people from thousands of years ago racist), to the economy(where some companies are trying to make their products more acceptable because the mob thinks the products are racist. Crayola, the crayons company  comes to mind). At this point, you might think this is only an issue of the West or the “White man” as some would call it and does not  affect us in any way. But I will say this; though it seems to be more publicized in other parts of the world, its effects in Africa are equally as bad or even worse. A lot of us are still pissed at the colonizers for what they did to our forefathers and our land a couple of centuries ago. Is it a legitimate cause to be furious about? Of course it is - but how much good does that fury contribute to our overall growth? It only takes us as far as not studying takes a lazy student. We are so used to this blame game that we even forget that the very people who sold us out where our own very ancestors. This is in no way a justification for the what the colonialists did but rather, an eye opener to the fact that complains don’t solve problems. They just give us a reason to be comfortable being in our own dilemma 

This fight is causing more division than it is producing unity amongst us. If we really desire growth, we must lay down our egos and backward thinking aside, come together, put together our resources and build our land. No one else is going to do that for us. No one owes you reparations for what they did to you centuries ago(again not justifying their actions). If after all this while we still cannot move on, it makes one wonder if we are even capable of growth by ourselves. What happened happened, what has been done has been done and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Suck it up, grow up and move on. Instead of focusing on that which cannot be reversed, focus on preventing it from ever reoccurring in the future and what better way is there to do this that building yourself to level where you cannot be maltreated? No one ever blames the reason for their failure on some feud they had with their siblings while growing up neither does any sane person blame their failure on another’s success. These are all independent events and the occurrence of one does not imply nor is it implied by the occurrence of another. This is what grownups do. They understand that it is part of the package of life and lean to live with them. Only the immature will think they are either more qualified or less qualified for success. The world is a level playing ground. Shortage of one resource is no reason to fail because these things are usually being remedied by an abundance in something else. If we really desire success, then let us think like adults and not babies.

By Yimnai,

Technical Director, Lenjval Technologies