I was inside a public transport vehicle on my way home from work one evening when a white truck passed us by.
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Seated behind the truck were about seven young men. They looked to me like labourers on their way to a site. I couldn’t tell for sure.
At the driver and passenger’s seats were two white guys.
Immediately the trucked passed in the opposite direction, someone in my vehicle said, “Slave mentality.”
Another passenger asked him why he said that and in reply, he explained that because the men in front where white and the ones behind were black, the white men must be racist.
“It is only in this country, you’ll see where a white man is oppressing a black man on his own land,” he said. Some of the passengers nodded in agreement and I was puzzled.
Usually, in situations like these, I’d be quiet but this time, I couldn’t just be quiet. My curiosity won as I was interested in finding out what was on his mind.
“I don’t understand how that is racism,” I said. “As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing wrong with what we just saw. A man wants services and another is willing to render it in exchange for money. What is so bad about that?”
“Everything is bad about that,” He responded. “How many times have you seen a white man working for a black man? Why must they be the ones to dominate us even in our home?”
At this point, I knew a lot of notions needed to be corrected but there was too little time. I had started it and even if I couldn’t debunk some of the ideas he had, I knew I could at least plant seed and so, my sermon began:
“Nobody is dominating you in your own home. Should more respect be given to you just because you own the house? It’s important we see them as humans first before noticing the color of their skin.
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If it had been black men driving that truck with black men behind, you wouldn’t have seen anything wrong with that. In fact, when rich people misbehave in this country, it is mostly the poor people that say things like, ‘Leave him. He’s a big man.’ To tell the truth, our lack of self-esteem is largely responsible for where we are. If you had as much money as you wanted and you had the option of either sending your child to a school run by a white person or one run by a black, you most likely will send that child to the one run by the white person. This is the real slave mentality because you’re being a racist against your own race, you believe that a school run by a white person must be better without first finding out details.
In this situation Sir, you seem to be the racist because you feel that all white men take advantage of black men. Next time, remember that he is a human first.
It’s very unfair to judge a person based on the color of their skin. With all that our race has been through, we should know better.”
I got to my destination and alighted. Of course, not everyone agreed with what I said but that was my humble opinion. Unfortunately, there was no time to hear other people’s views.
