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Abstract

a always wanting to be first in all things, or if simply, it is a product of American ignorance.We’ve all seen the CNN maps where countries are often misidentified in terms of their geographical location. So is it this lack of knowledge about the rest of the world that drives this belief that American racism is the most valid, the most legit?All this to say that it is somehow ironic that those who are excluded because of racism in the US, exclude other narratives and experiences about racism from other parts of the world.I’m just here to say folks that there is not one racism that is more legitimate, more important than the other. All racism hurts, all racism excludes, all racism destroys black and brown lives.A black man who cannot find a job to feed his family in the UK, Denmark, or Switzerland suffers the same way like one that cannot find employment in the US.In the US, however, affirmative action and D&I quotas may help him get a job, while here, sadly, he is on his own, often with all his hard-earned university degrees from some of the best schools here.We should not be judging whose racism is real, more painful, more intense, more legitimate.The person who is a victim of racism experiences the same pain whether he is here, in Argentina, Singapore, Japan, or Alaska. The pain is real and the pain is all the same.We need to accept and acknowledge that there is no hierarchy here: pain is pain – your pain isn’t more important than my pain.When I write about racism, people immediately ask what part of the US I live in. When I say I live in Switzerland, there’s like a kind of disappointment, as though I can’t be legit because I cannot connect with the American experience of racism.And maybe I don’t understand, so I ask you all this candid question: Is there a different type of racism in the US than in the rest of the world? Is it one that I can only talk and write about only if I was born or live on US soil?The fact is, in an inherently racist world, all experiences are legitimate and valid.In Sierra Leone, in West Africa, where I come from, people suffered under colonialism. Their lands and natural resources were plundered, exploited, and stolen away from them by white invaders.They were subjugated, told their culture and beliefs were inferior. They were evangelized – forced to worship a white

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God.Every piece of their identity was erased and substituted by the white colonizer’s culture, beliefs, and values. They were stripped of everything that made them themselves.Still today, the nefarious effects of colonialism on Africa and many other countries in the world are still very visible. There are still civil wars going on in Africa – the remnants of colonial rule.The 1994 genocide in Rwanda, has its roots in the Belgian occupation of that country. Colonialism is institutionalized white supremacy and racism by a different name, and black people in Europe and Africa are still suffering from it.And if you take a look at apartheid – a system enforced to segregate black from white people in South Africa from 1948–1994, here again, you’ll see how black people have suffered horrendous racism at the hands of yet another despicable construct.There are many other examples that speak to racism around the world. I am sure that another antiracism writer on this platform, <a href="undefined">Sharon Hurley Hall</a> can speak quite eloquently to racism in the Barbadian context, which is an angle that not many of us may have even imagined existed.The plea I am making here is that all narratives about racism are legitimate. Let us not entertain that one such group has had more pain than the other.Let’s acknowledge that the problem is global and set about educating the rest of the world about how to unlearn racism and bias.If we spend our time competing against one another to find out who has had more pain, we are wasting both our energy and time.To be successful in our antiracism mission, we need to come together. We cannot be fragmented or divided or competing against one another.As the moral arc of the universe shifts to a place where white supremacist and extreme right groups are growing by the day and no longer hiding their plans for a race war, we the antiracists have an important task and responsibility ahead of us.We need to get working with a sense of urgency – a bit like that of a fire person facing an ever-growing and potentially devastating fire.We need to work together to put out, albeit stamp out the fire completely – and in that task, we all need to be able to see each other as equals, sharing an equal pain, and living in a common humanity.Thanks for reading my perspective.</article></body>

I’m An Antiracism Writer Who Hasn’t Experienced Real Racism

Really, so if you haven’t experienced racism in America, then you haven’t experienced real racism?

So, as I have explained in many of my articles, racism is a global phenomenon – it’s rampant. Living in Europe, albeit Switzerland, doesn’t make me immune to it. I would venture off as far as to say that racism in Europe is more subtle, more insidious, more damaging.

Here, we don’t have affirmative action or policies to safeguard black livelihoods.

Here, people tend to deny more often than not that racism exists. Here you can’t live your life in black only communities and totally ignore the problem. At some stage, you’ll have to interact with the white dominant culture – i.e. the work market, a bank, or the unemployment office, and you’ll have to face the full brunt of systemic racism all the same.

Here, you face racism daily, you are gaslighted by people you thought were your friends.

Here, right now, the Black Lives Movement is gasping for air – as I write this, I can hear it’s last rattling breaths, it’s desperate, breathless pleas as the second virulent wave of COVID-19 weakens, almost annihilates its momentum.

But all the while, as I talk about racism in this part of the world, I get told I don’t know what real racism is if I haven’t lived in America. That I don’t know what real racism feels like if I haven’t had one of my people die at the hands of police. That I don’t know what real racism is if I haven’t lived in the Deep South and my ancestors aren’t Malcolm X or Martin Luther King.

I’ve been told that I have no idea about the struggle of black people in America so I couldn’t possibly have a clue about what real racism is. These comments though hurtful point to a concerning chasm in the fight against racism around the world.

The insistence of antiracism militants in America that those that live there have suffered more at the hands of racism than any other black people around the world is wrong. I sometimes wonder if this is a by-product of America always wanting to be first in all things, or if simply, it is a product of American ignorance.

We’ve all seen the CNN maps where countries are often misidentified in terms of their geographical location. So is it this lack of knowledge about the rest of the world that drives this belief that American racism is the most valid, the most legit?

All this to say that it is somehow ironic that those who are excluded because of racism in the US, exclude other narratives and experiences about racism from other parts of the world.

I’m just here to say folks that there is not one racism that is more legitimate, more important than the other. All racism hurts, all racism excludes, all racism destroys black and brown lives.

A black man who cannot find a job to feed his family in the UK, Denmark, or Switzerland suffers the same way like one that cannot find employment in the US.

In the US, however, affirmative action and D&I quotas may help him get a job, while here, sadly, he is on his own, often with all his hard-earned university degrees from some of the best schools here.

We should not be judging whose racism is real, more painful, more intense, more legitimate.

The person who is a victim of racism experiences the same pain whether he is here, in Argentina, Singapore, Japan, or Alaska. The pain is real and the pain is all the same.

We need to accept and acknowledge that there is no hierarchy here: pain is pain – your pain isn’t more important than my pain.

When I write about racism, people immediately ask what part of the US I live in. When I say I live in Switzerland, there’s like a kind of disappointment, as though I can’t be legit because I cannot connect with the American experience of racism.

And maybe I don’t understand, so I ask you all this candid question: Is there a different type of racism in the US than in the rest of the world? Is it one that I can only talk and write about only if I was born or live on US soil?

The fact is, in an inherently racist world, all experiences are legitimate and valid.

In Sierra Leone, in West Africa, where I come from, people suffered under colonialism. Their lands and natural resources were plundered, exploited, and stolen away from them by white invaders.

They were subjugated, told their culture and beliefs were inferior. They were evangelized – forced to worship a white God.

Every piece of their identity was erased and substituted by the white colonizer’s culture, beliefs, and values. They were stripped of everything that made them themselves.

Still today, the nefarious effects of colonialism on Africa and many other countries in the world are still very visible. There are still civil wars going on in Africa – the remnants of colonial rule.

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda, has its roots in the Belgian occupation of that country. Colonialism is institutionalized white supremacy and racism by a different name, and black people in Europe and Africa are still suffering from it.

And if you take a look at apartheid – a system enforced to segregate black from white people in South Africa from 1948–1994, here again, you’ll see how black people have suffered horrendous racism at the hands of yet another despicable construct.

There are many other examples that speak to racism around the world. I am sure that another antiracism writer on this platform, Sharon Hurley Hall can speak quite eloquently to racism in the Barbadian context, which is an angle that not many of us may have even imagined existed.

The plea I am making here is that all narratives about racism are legitimate. Let us not entertain that one such group has had more pain than the other.

Let’s acknowledge that the problem is global and set about educating the rest of the world about how to unlearn racism and bias.

If we spend our time competing against one another to find out who has had more pain, we are wasting both our energy and time.

To be successful in our antiracism mission, we need to come together. We cannot be fragmented or divided or competing against one another.

As the moral arc of the universe shifts to a place where white supremacist and extreme right groups are growing by the day and no longer hiding their plans for a race war, we the antiracists have an important task and responsibility ahead of us.

We need to get working with a sense of urgency – a bit like that of a fire person facing an ever-growing and potentially devastating fire.

We need to work together to put out, albeit stamp out the fire completely – and in that task, we all need to be able to see each other as equals, sharing an equal pain, and living in a common humanity.

Thanks for reading my perspective.