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The ugly birth of racism among different races brought about a destiny killing complex that unfortunately still lives deep in the minds of many people today. No matter how much we try to either pretend or ignore its existence, the spirit of racism is very much alive among our societies.
Perpetrated, unfortunately, by the body that should have been fighting against it, racism has been the biggest blow to a man’s confidence and identity.
Traces of this vice can be found among people of different ethnic cultures but the biggest has been between white people and black people. For centuries now, white people have been taught and trained that they are a superior race to the blacks, and black people, through the slave trade that resulted from this teaching, have also been taught and trained that they are inferior to the white race.
This brain-washing has been so deep-seeded that to progress beyond this point; we will need a re-brain-washing in the right way, a retraining of our minds.
It’s not an easy job to simply tell someone, who has gone through this brain washing and thinks that anything black is bad while everything white is good, to tell them that there is nothing wrong with black, would almost take a rebirth of their mind to accept. Some people actually attribute the underdevelopment of Africa to the colour of the skin of the African man. Is the poverty in Africa inherent in the black man’s skin? Is the black man under a curse to live in perpetual poverty?
From my childhood, whenever I saw the picture of the devil, he was painted black, and Jesus was always painted white skinned. All the angels in my junior bible stories book were white, while their counterparts, the demons, were all black. The English language even has terminologies such as: “black sheep”, meaning “a member of a family or group who is considered undesirable or disreputable – really a disgrace”.
Some of the meanings of phrases used with the word “black” as quoted from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language are as follows and I quote:
“Black deeds” means: evil and wicked deeds.
“Black thoughts” means: cheerless and depressingly gloomy thoughts.
“He gave me a black look”means: his look was marked by anger and sullenness.
“A black day” means: a day full of disaster and calamity.
Other phrases used with the word “white” are as follows and I quote:
“That’s very white of you.” Means you are decent, honourable and dependable.
“White magic” is magic that is without malice and harmless.
“White” also means auspicious and fortunate, morally pure and innocent.
To “black out” means to lose consciousness while to “white out” means to correct errors.
The list goes on and on.
With this background from infancy, reprogramming your mind to think differently is not an easy bit.
Our society has been staged to uplift the white race and down tread the black race. This is why slave trade was considered “normal”, the black man was not regarded as a complete human, and this was even preached in church. The church which was supposed to fight the scourge was actually in the forefront promoting this evil act in the name of the Lord.
To this day, when an indigenous black man sees a white man, he feels like he has met an object worth of respect because he’s been trained to think that way; that the white man is above him; and likewise, the white man feels superior when in the presence of a black man. Many white men were taught and trained that the black man is supposed to work for them and not the other way round.
When I was growing up, whenever I did something that my mom liked, she showered me with praises, and this is how she’d go:
“Oh what a brilliant boy you are, you are a child of a white man, you are a white man, your skin deceives us all!!” she’d go on and on bragging about how “white” I was and I’d feel really great and proud.
On the other hand, when I messed up, black was all over me; “you black African boy, what’s wrong with you??” she’d scream; this was the time you hated to be black. I wasn’t the only one who had this experience in my childhood, but this upbringing unconsciously trains you that to be black is bad, you should have been born white.
Apart from the slave trading of black people of Africa, those that escaped and remained in their countries were subjected to the tragic effects of colonialism. The segregation, the mistreatment and torture from this epidemic further cemented the inferior complexes in the minds of the black people. Their lives became wholly dependent on the colonial masters that ruled them for years.
And when they could no longer manage themselves without the help of their masters, they were finally given the so called independence.
You cannot be truly independent until your thinking is independent.
The black people of Africa were colonized to think like their masters, to speak the language of their masters, to think that they were not able to rule themselves, they were colonized to think that their masters were smarter than them. They were trained to depend on their masters, and when this was eventually enshrined in their black minds, they got their independence.
In essence, the black man in Africa got his independence when he could no longer rule himself effectively. To this day, Africa is still struggling with issues of governance and poverty, not because Africa has no resources, but primarily because it does not have a mind of its own. Africa still economically depends on its colonial masters to a very large extent; the amount of international debt and aid accumulated in many African countries is a direct indication of this dependence and inability for Africa to rule herself effectively. Africa still has its master in the white man; and Africa lives by the economic policies of its master.
However, in spite of all this, you cannot continue to blame the past for your present and your future misdemeanour. We need to deal with this before we can make any significant progress.
Black people need to know that having an inferior perception of oneself will always cause your mind to function at below average. White people do not have a problem here, it’s the black man that has been looked down upon as having a below average brain, inferior to the white man’s brain.
An inferior self image, will always result into an inferior lifestyle.
To a person with this mindset, it would take a total transformation of their mind to understand that there is no difference between a black man and a white man except for the color of their skin; and that there’s no relationship between your achievements and your race. Unfortunately, your subconscious mind will always resist change from it’s prior training; this is a protection mechanism working in your system. Every person is either brain washed by them selves or by the environment in which they live to believe and think in a certain way. Brain washing can either be positive or negative.
The internet has become the greatest equalizer of all time, information that was once not available to you, is now available to all; the treasures that were once only for the select few, are now let out in the open for all.
There is a very interesting script in the christian bible which says:
Therefore, my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge and their honorable men are famished and their multitude dried up with thirst.
Isaiah 5:13
The greatest enemy in your life is not your race, neither is it your fellow human being. Anything you cannot change, is not what you are up against – that’s not your enemy.
The greatest enemy in your life is called “ignorance”. What you do not know will always have an upper hand over you.
The text from Isaiah 5:13 above, implies that the main reason you are hungry and in bondage is that you have no knowledge.
Most of Africa fits this description perfectly; “into captivity and famished”.
When slaves were taken from Africa, they were forbidden from learning to read and write, lest they discovered themselves and knew what their masters knew. Have you ever heard of the phrase…
If you want to hide anything from a black man, put it in a book…??
Because Africa, in general, does not have a culture of reading, this prevents the creation of a pool of knowledge within the continent.
Knowledge will give you power to face your future with confidence.
Knowledge will break down those chains of inferior complexes resulting from racism and segregation.
Knowledge is indeed more powerful than color!!
But what is knowledge?
True knowledge is one that starts from knowing yourself first. Even a prince, if he does not know that he is a prince, he will live like a slave. Knowing yourself will direct the course of your life and will determine what you touch, what you study and eventually what you achieve.
Unfortunately, there is no college nor university in the world that offers a course about you and who you are; the greatest university that offers that course is inside you.
The greatest achievers of our time are people who learned how to manage themselves and placed themselves where they could perform and contribute effectively – it is people who knew their strengths, their weaknesses and their value systems. These people know exactly how best they perform and so they do not try to change themselves but rather harness the way they perform.
This is key number one to true success, to a fulfilled life; to happiness… discovering your true self will make your life easier and more enjoyable.
How painful and difficult it is to cut down a tree with a knife – though it looks like the knife might actually get the tree down some day, the job is easier done with an axe because a knife was not built for cutting down trees. But this is how many people are living their lives, pursuing a life for which they were not built and armed, and therefore finding it so difficult.
Are you finding life difficult? Is what you are pursuing too hard for you? Are you enjoying your work or do you dread it the minute you think about it? Are you saddest on Mondays and happiest on Fridays? Perhaps you are a knife which is trying to cut down a forest and the project seems to never coming to an end!! Or maybe you are an axe but you are busy only cutting vegetables and you feel so dissatisfied because your full potential is locked up and unutilized…
Many from the adult population in formal employment, actually don’t find fulfillment and satisfaction in their jobs; and because they have been locked up in the chase to make ends meet, they would not do anything about it apart from enduring the days, and for most, they find weekends as the only time they have to pursue their dreams, and their joy comes from what they do only in two days per week. Under performance in jobs comes primarily from people that are misplaced and only work to earn a living; they work because they have to, not because they enjoy it.
True knowledge of one self, is the beginning of a purposeful and therefore meaningful and enjoyable lifestyle; and knowledge is truly more powerful than color.