Hey guys. Today's post is all about blackness. More specifically, it is about acknowledging that black as a colour and black as a race are not synonymous with each other, and therefore, do not equate to one another. This may sound difficult to wrap your head around - let me land. To be honest, I’ve been meaning to discuss this issue for a while, but what really prompted me to write about it was a critique of my previous post given by a friend.

As you probably noticed, in my previous post, I described ignorance - what I think is the biggest problem today - as a 'growing black wall.' When I sent it to my friend for a preview, she suggested that perhaps I describe ignorance as grey - as opposed to black - to avoid offending anyone. Don’t get me wrong: I was grateful for her feedback, however, I was struggling to understand how and why my description of ignorance as black would offend anyone. She explained that black people reading the post may be annoyed that the word 'black' was being used to connote a negative concept, "as always". Hm. I thought about this for a couple of seconds. Of course, there was truth in her point; the colour black IS often regarded as having evil or sinister connotations. Likewise, the black race IS constantly demonised within Western society - particularly through misrepresentations in the media - and has been for centuries. Just take a look at how black men are portrayed as thugs in countless news articles.

Even when they are the victims of police brutality, the criminal justice system still manages to demonise them. Note the use of the words “gangsta” and “fallen soldier” below, indicating the the connotations of violence that the media constantly recycles when referring to black men:

However, this doesn’t mean that we should blindly accept the notion of “The colour black is negative; therefore being black must be negative”. In other words, the colour of our skin has been used to eclipse our black identity: our cultures, heritage, history (beyond slavery 🙄) and most of all, our capabilities. So, ultimately, I can’t actually blame my friend for making this link between black as a colour and black as a race. Why? Because this link has been constructed, cemented and reinforced in our minds by other races for generations. However, in order to maximise our potential as a race, we must deconstruct this link. This link which equates having black skin to being less pure, less able and therefore, inferior to having white skin.

Ironically enough, the reality is that, prior to slavery and colonisation, black people didn’t refer to ourselves as “black”. Before other races engrained into our minds that we are “black”, to us, we were just the norm. Wow. Imagine a world in which all we knew was blackness, and whiteness wasn’t regarded as superior. Then that's when I traced my mind back to a movie I watched recently called 'The Good Lie'. There was a scene in which the main characters - three Sudanese orphans - had just arrived at a safety camp, and came across a Caucasian woman who worked at the camp. As soon as the children lay eyes on her, one of them asked 'Why does that woman have no colour?', genuinely perplexed by the woman's lack of pigment. My initial reaction was to laugh. The children's naivety was amusing. However, it was also food for thought. I thought to myself: “Isn't it so interesting that black people have been made to look like the abnormal ones? The ones with too much colour. Whereas, these children perceived the white woman as abnormal, as someone without enough colour." Of course we would have observed that the colour of our skin was visibly brown, but we did not label ourselves as “black” people. Non-black people did.

My aim here isn’t to single-handedly seek revenge by turning the tables and imposing whiteness as inferior. Lol, I couldn’t even if I tried. Not at all. I simple want black people to realise that we once lived in the comfort of just being people; people who weren’t defined by the colour of our skin. For years we have been told that the colour of our skin equates to failure, incapacity and hostility. No. We need to deconstruct this, instead of digest it. Despite the fact that, in the English language, the colour black will probably always hold negative connotations, we (both black and non-black people) must start associating black as a racial description with positive qualities: strength, intellect, endurance, empowerment. 

In the words of Dave, “Black is pain, black is joy, black is excellence”. At the end for the day, if we don’t redefine blackness ourselves, nobody else will. Why? Because we live in a society which has been built on the foundations of racism, colonialism and white supremacy. Because the suffering of black people both directly and indirectly benefits every other race - the white race in particular. Because if black people have less wealth, jobs and resources, all the other races get to have more, right? Well, at least this is what the dog-eat-dog capitalist mentality promotes.

Above is a global racial hierarchy which depicts mainly black people at the bottom of the world’s racial structure. If we want to change this (without the use of violence lol) we must begin to redefine blackness. This is why I decided to title this blog post “Refuse to Be Reduced to a Colour”. Until we do just this, we will never be perceived as being more than just the colour of our skin.

Recommended Reading:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-47298111

Here is an article which outlines why 56 black men - lawyers, doctors, bankers, entrepreneurs - decided to pose in black hoodies. This is just one example of how we can start to re-write mainstream society’s definition of blackness.