Thursday, May 7, 2015

Let’s be black and proud







Beautiful woman
A beautiful black woman. They made everything black ugly and evil. Look in your dictionary and see the synonyms of the word ‘black.’ It’s always something degrading and low and sinister. PHOTO| FILE 
By Ciku Muiruri
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It’s been a mess in the US after yet another black male fell victim to police brutality. I’d like to quote Dr Martin Luther King: 
“If the Negro is to be free, he must move down into the inner resources of his own soul and sign with a pen and ink of self-assertive manhood his own emancipation proclamation.
“Don’t let anybody take your manhood. Be proud of our heritage. We don’t have anything to be ashamed of. Somebody told a lie one day. They couched it in language.
They made everything black ugly and evil. Look in your dictionary and see the synonyms of the word ‘black.’ It’s always something degrading and low and sinister.
Look at the word ‘white,’ it’s always something pure and high and clean. I want to get the language so right that everybody here will cry out, ‘Yes, I’m black, I’m proud of it!!’”
How interesting. Are people conditioned, mentally and otherwise to think negatively about the colour black? In the US, the black wire is the live wire, while the white wire is the neutral wire.
This colour-coding is unique to the US. For everyone else, it is red,  not black, that represents danger. Isn’t the devil always depicted as red?
AMAZING COLOUR
I find black an amazing colour. Who doesn’t own a little black dress? Who doesn’t wear black when trying to look formal and sophisticated?
Who doesn’t turn to black lingerie when trying to look sexy? Who doesn’t choose a black sports car over a white one? Who doesn’t choke in frustration when invited to an all-white party?
And if you ever want to buy me jewellery, please look no further than a black diamond. They are exquisite. Black is powerful. Black represents control. And you know how we all love money?
Well, talk to your accountant, he or she will tell you that “Being in the black” is a good thing!
When my father died, the entire family wore white and cream suits to his funeral. Who says that to mourn, one must only wear the colour wrongly associated with bad things?
Why was it called the black plague and not the white plague, given that it hit Europe and not Africa? Perhaps someone should wear a smashing black bridal gown one of these fine days. It’s a mysterious colour – strong and contained. 
In any case, no one is actually black, are they? And no one is actually white either. It has nothing to do with colour thing. It’s has to do with attitude.
Deep down many Blacks don’t believe that they are equal to White man. Why fight so hard to be called African American? What was wrong with Black American?
They fought to get rid of the word nigga but still use it among themselves, so much so that it’s now a huge part of pop culture. Every white person into hip-hop screams Nigga at their top of their lungs when we are not looking. It’s just a word; I don’t see what the fuss is all about.
“You dirty lowdown skanky whore!” is okay but “You dirty stinking nigga” is bad? If someone decides to insult you, one word is not any worse than another, in my opinion.
You are afraid of the word because you feel inferior. It touches a nerve. How many of you have ever bought your child a black doll? Anyone? How sad is that? If MLK could speak from the grave, he would want all of us, not just Americans, to sign our own emancipation proclamation. After all, you don’t need shackles on your hands and feet to still be a slave

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