Racism: Underdevelopment In Africa Versus Skin Color As Fuel For Persistent Degradation of The African Diaspora
Sub-Title: Why The Resuscitation of African Nations Via Knowledge is Pivotal For Its Descendant’s Basic Human Dignity Globally
Knowledge is a vital component and foundation for human fruitfulness, i.e. productivity, imagination, innovation, discovery and authentic awareness of self within the human family.
Knowledge is also a pivotal marker by which we consciously and sub-consciously judge people who “do not look like us”.
In an ideal world, knowledge should not merely be accumulated, it should give us direction for good living.
Racism, the sad seemingly impregnable scourge has its root, at least in part, in the supposition and perception of a person’s or a group of people’s knowledge and skill set.
A long standing, complex deep wound in the USA is the issue of Racism. The deeply flawed and false knowledge that a part of the Imago Dei is fundamentally intellectually inferior to the other parts of the same body.
The voices on this issue span a wide spectrum.There are those who would rather not talk about it and there are those at the other end of the spectrum who talk about it daily.
Some people deny systemic and institutional racism in the USA and other developed nations of the world while others believe they are alive and thriving.
One thing most people of African descent in the USA would admit is that they would experience bias and undeserved stereotyping at some point and more likely at multiple points in their lives.
This inescapable ‘affliction’ could be subtle or blatant. It could happen consciously or sub-consciously. It could be harmless and it may be so harmful as to result in death.
In this piece and a series to follow, I will argue that the degradation and devaluation of people of African descent globally will continue as long as Africa remains the poorest on earth knowledge-wise and the least developed economically, socially, militarily and scholastically.
The opposite is also true. When Africa, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa stands on its feet, free of dependency on the West, China and India and matches them in knowledge-based development, the dehumanization of African Diasporans will most likely rapidly abate.
Mr. Lawrence O’Donnell, host of MSNBC’s The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell, created the Kids In Need of Desk (K.I.N.D.) Fund with UNICEF in 2010 — — In Malawi, K.I.N.D. Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving — Forbes.
The fund provides opportunities for girls and boys in Malawi to learn while sitting at a desk rather than on the floor. The program also provides scholarships for girls’ education in the nation.
In the last six decades, Africa has benefited from the efforts of philanthropists like the MSNBC Anchor, other celebrities and scores of organizations and foreign government programs.
On the other hand, during the same six decades, many nations in the continent have been drowned in poor early, basic and secondary school education by their woeful post-independent leaders.
There is no miracle drug to cure the stench of Racism.
Certainly, the efforts in the USA by several movements in the 20th century and now in the 21st century to rid the nation of this evil have yielded fruit.
However, some very difficult questions remain.
Why is it so difficult for human beings to realize that the color of the skin has no bearing with the essential nature of anyone of us?
Given all the advances in genomics and neuroscience, why has it been so difficult for so many people who are not of African descent to accept the fact that the assumptions about inherent inferiority of people with dark skin are wrong?
Why do the leaders in the scientific community, in government and in law enforcement live out these erroneous assumptions by continuing to box people into monolithic entities based on skin color?
In order to punch a big hole in the hard rock of stereotypes about Africans and their descendants, the homeland, i.e. Africa must significantly multiply its efforts in the arena of knowledge acquisition and self sufficient productivity by the citizens. This will allow them to jettison the culture of dependency and challenge the rest of the world in infrastructure, agriculture, the sciences, technology and space exploration. Untill Africa reaches that point, her sons and daughters in the Diaspora will always be perceived as the dominant members of ‘The Bottom Billion’ and treated as such.
Unfortunately, in the past several decades, the signals in many parts of Africa have been pointing in the wrong direction. Hopefully there will be a U-turn sooner rather than later.
The photo below is of a senior high school taken in 2018 in the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria. A nation with enormous human resources and arguably more natural resources than many developed nations of the world.
These school children are not just enduring years of physical pain in their high school years, but will most likely experience decades of emotional, intellectual and “unfulfilled dreams” anguish thereafter.
Sadly, this is the norm rather than the exception in many nations in Sub-Saharan Africa. It goes without saying that the education received by the students under these conditions is sub-par.
With very few notable exceptions, the political leadership in Africa is saturated with individuals who have no thirst or appetite for the excellency of knowledge as the foundation for the resuscitation of their nations.
This is one of the major reasons why the fight against Racism in the African Diaspora will remain a gargantuan task for decades to come.
It is also why it is incumbent on the African Diaspora to call the leadership in Africa to account and not give them a pass for their shenanigans, corruption, poor governance and the injustices afflicted on their fellow citizens.
Mindset Transformation In Africa: A Key For Path To Equality In The Diaspora
The death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 while a Minneapolis Minnesota police officer knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds brought the issue of Racism front and center across the globe.
No longer can the issue be wished away or left only to the politicians and the courts to tackle. It is a moral existential imperative for mankind.
Outside Africa, there must be a new awakening and reckoning, much of which is going on now, powered by civil rights and other citizens groups and some corporations.
However, in order to sustain these efforts, foreign assistance to Africa must focus on initiatives to support projects and programs that address the root causes of poor performance in these African nations. The fundamental problems are failure of mindset, poor leadership and dishonest governance culminating, inter-alia, in poverty of knowledge.
Inside Africa, the resuscitation of the nations must be anchored on the following three pillars. Can Do Mindset, Transformational Leadership and Fidelity to The Truth.
Without commitment to, and laser-focus on this triad, not much will change in the continent. By extension, not much will change in the perception of Africans and their descendants in the Diaspora by other segments of the human race.
Africans and their leaders must realize the fact that the color of the human skin bears no association whatsoever with the quality of the output of our brains, our very essence.
The fight against Racism in the African Diaspora cannot be won unless the fight against inferior knowledge and sub-par productivity of Africans in Africa is won.
The success of the battle against Racism in the African Diaspora will exponentially be enhanced by the success of the uplifting of Africa from the bottom of human ladder of development.
In this fight, knowledge is pivotal. This is one of the most important and daunting challenges facing humankind today.
