The Western Privilege

In my quest to travel across the land of Europe, I have been scourging the net to get stories of black women (evidently, all of whom are American) who have travelled and what their experiences of Europe were. Some stories were good, some were terrible, but what was consistent in all of them was the change in perception by some Europeans when they discovered that the women were from the States. This became famously coined as the ‘American privilege’. I can understand this, because they came from arguably the most powerful country in the world, however, I found some of the blogs written to be slightly arrogant in the sense that all black people who are able to travel should be thankful to these African Americans for they helped to change the negative perception of black people. The fact of the matter is that any black person who can speak well, has a good job and education is a shock to most Europeans. Rather than seeing it as an American privilege, it should been seen as the ‘Western Privilege’ whereby black people, who have been fortunate enough to excel in their respective career paths in the wealthy western countries and are culturally aware are seen in a positive light.

Peace

The Fear

I have dreams, big dreams to travel the world and in my own way fight the injustice called racism. Money, though admittedly I do lack, isn’t holding me back. Neither is the fact that I can only speak English, as you can always learn a language on the go. The thing that is holding me back is fear. Fear of the unknown. What if I absolutely hate it in another country? What if what I set out to do ultimately fails? The biggie for me is what if I do experience unprecedented racism? As much as I try to be subjective with this issue, I can’t ignore the fact that my skin colour will ultimately draw attention to fairly racial homogenous countries in Europe. I don’t think I am built (or maybe ready) for handling situations whereby I have to defend myself due to the colour of my skin.

These are all ‘what ifs’, but they do cloud my mind and are unfortunately holding me back. As 2010 is drawing to a close, I hope that for 2011 I will overcome these fears and actually do live out my dreams.

Peace

The Misconceptions Of Africa

I will try my best to refrain from going into an all out rant, but I'm sure there will be instances in this post whereby it will seem as though I am ready to assault someone. But after reading numerous blogs and articles, I feel that it’s time that this issue needs to be addressed. For every argument there has to be a basis, so I will start the basis of my argument by saying this: AFRICA IS NOT A COUNTRY, it’s a continent. The amount of times I heard people (most notably Americans) referring it to one is quite frankly, shocking. We have, in fact 54 countries, each with their own government and culture

With the vast knowledge of information at our fingertips why this major detail is overlooked is beyond me.

This then leads on to my second statement: Africa as a CONTINENT is not poor. Yes that's right, it is not poor. It probably has the most natural resources in the world. Oil, diamonds, gold, titanium, cocoa, maize, you name it. This whole nonsense that there is no food to feed the hungry children is totally false. The fact of the matter is that there are economies in the continent of Africa that are doing really well and would give some countries in Europe the run for its money. Botswana has such a robust economy that it actually lends to the IMF. Cape Verde has a GDP that would be fit to contend with one of the countries in the EU.

So bearing the points above in mind, why then the negativity towards Africa? Firstly, there are corrupt governments in various countries within Africa. This is a well known fact, but what is often overlooked is the fact that the West condones the corruption. I'll go right in there and be controversial by saying that it’s not in the West’s favour to see Africa as a rising power. Many natural resources are brought by the West on the cheap, so by having the cost of raw materials rise wouldn't be good. This is natural economics I get that, but how the West ensures that this doesn't happen is to maintain the instability of governments. The fact of the matter is certain governments in Africa are unfortunately corrupt at best and unstable at worst. How this is done is by governments allowing the flow of arms to countries where there is political unrest. You could argue that there are War Lords who supply guns in exchange for raw materials such as diamonds, but to be honest the amount of guns found could not have all possibly been brought from the black market. The flow of arms, hence continued civil wars is what stops certain countries in Africa from being productive. The West is seen in the knight in shining armour by providing aid to alleviate the so-called pressures of poverty. What in fact the West should do is to construct dialogue between warring factions and help to resolve the issue.

Secondly the media of the West loves to paint a negative picture of Africa. I am not trying to paint a light hearted picture of the ills of Africa, but sensationalism is key to attracting viewers. This is why you see the bombardment of Oxfam ads and of other charities with extreme scenes of children malnourished in Africa. Surely, you would ask, there is a basis for them to be showing starving children? Simple it’s the extreme example to get a reaction. People would feel less inclined, if they saw a child who looked relatively healthy playing with her friends and the charity is asking for some cash. I personally blame these charities for lumbering up the countries in Africa as one and duping the peoples in west to think that Africa is one big mass of hungry aids ridden people. I also feel that their ‘aid’ in Africa is doing more harm than good, but that is for another blog altogether.

Africa as a continent has its problems that purely on an economical platform you would argue have a lot of catching up to do compared to the West. However, this is not an excuse for the mass ignorance that is out there and the perception that anyone is from the continent of Africa is poor, has got aids or is trying to scam you

Peace

The Exception To The Rule

This admittedly may not have been the best title for the post, but I did struggle to find something more apt in regards to the issue I am about to discuss. The TV programme called the X Factor has been, over the past 2 months or so, been my guilty pleasure. The format has been the same year on year, the show is blatantly fixed that why I bother to watch and believe who I want to win will do so, is a mystery!

This year, one of the contest was a young girl named Cher (yep, that’s her real name) who could both sing and rap. The thing that grabbed people’s attention whether they liked to admit it or not was that Cher was white. Now don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of white artists who have managed to have done fantastically well in what is loosely seen as the ‘black’ music i.e. Hip Hop and R&B. You have to look no further than Eminem to see this. What I found really frustrating in the X Factor was that Cher was seen to be this ‘new’ phenomenon within pop. They kept on saying that is this new niche within pop and describing her performances as ‘edgy’. Cher to me is something that is definitely not new; talented yes, new no. Have they not heard of Alesha Dixon, or Estelle?

One couldn’t help but wonder if the case would have been entirely different if Cher was black. Would they have seen her to be edgy? Creating a new niche? Or simply just another black girl doing the same old urban thing. Maybe I’m just being OTT but whilst you’re deciding have a look at Cher’s audition

 

Peace