America is a great country where immigrants from all walks of life, have settled and excelled in all fields, but like in any other civilizations, there is the dark side of it, as pure antipathy and delusion continue to haunt many.
The dark side, since self racial segregation due to prevailing conditions is like a lifestyle that began the moment the slaves were freed.
You can unmask outright racism and a clear dislike of white and black people alike with a few examples, and many would think it’s a story written in Africa or during the years of the “dead rabbits”
You can review some instances of racial injustices, racial segregation by design and many ills that can make Alcapone to look like a saint that lived in America once upon a time.
It is however a one sided brief narrative just hinting the dark side of a superpower continent that spends billions in fighting terrorism, trying to reach the heavens, and yet unable to solve the monstrous racism.
If a South African during Apartheid days is blindfolded and taken to Ebenezer church in downtown Atlanta and blindfold removed, then asked which church he is attending, he will certainly reply, Ebenezer church Pretoria.
He may not think he is in America year 2018 after seeing all black faces but, after a while, he will slowly start recollecting upon hearing the sweet melodious soul voices, and then confusion will follow.
Confusion will follow momentarily as the black people that time will not be singing freedom songs but rather, hallelujah salvation songs while loudly praising the lord for the good things, real or imagined he has done to them.
Racism is real in America and the best time to know it exist, is by visiting downtown black churches in any City on a Sunday morning where you will not see any white people in a country ruled and controlled by majority white people.
If you do the opposite by visiting churches in predominantly white neighborhoods on a Sunday morning, again you will only spot a few lost black men and women or maybe none depending on what part of Town you happen to be in.
You will then ponder and ask yourself… is it a form of religious Apartheid or by design segregation that the black and white people envy? Are they worshipping same God?
Those are questions you may never get answers as many don’t realize it’s odd and see the same as a normal way of life.
In a nutshell it’s a self segregation created by African Americans and white people that maybe did it as a way of expressing anger, despair, frustration or even while trying to outwit each other.
That is not the end of the story for if the same man later visit a nightclub same evening, he will be ordering a beer in his native Xhosa tongue twister language while all the time thinking that he is in Soweto because, all the people in that club will be black except for a few colored ones.
Again racism is real in nightclubs in black neighborhoods for you will not see any white people in a country guaranteed with freedom of association and assembly.
It does not end there for if the same man is taken to a Martin Luther King High School in Decatur Georgia, he will only spot a few white students, and that time he will think that he is in a school in Johannesburg or Rift Valley Academy in Kenya.
Racism in America is something people don’t talk about for they got used to it, embraced it, and somehow made it as if it’s a way of life.
It requires no clarification or proof as it is evident everywhere when you see black schools, black churches, black nightclub, white churches, white clubs black hair saloons, black it’s endless and one wonders if it’s the people that choose to live that way or it is a well calculated design to divide people?
This form of segregation however is somehow different for you will not see signs on the door written “no blacks” but once inside, the environment will in a way appear hostile and outright tell you “you don’t belong here”.
Self segregation was later complicated by the introduction of the diversity visa programs recipients who after arriving, devised other forms of self segregation by creating endless tribal churches, African restaurants, Chinese restaurants and many other social cultural gatherings depicting setups of their country of origin.
The immigrants further made self segregation distinct and the same to appear as if it is a normal way of life just like their counterpart but this time, even speaking in many different strange languages.
Again here, even those that look alike if they happen to visit those mentioned places, they will appear lost after hearing the music and the obvious cultural differences and again the environment will be like saying to them “you look like me but you don’t belong here”.
Here the African immigrant will not blame the African American more than they can blame themselves for they too upon arrival refused to embrace, interact, and get assimilated to the American culture.
After that brief introduction then the big question many would ask is:
Is self segregation a burning issue that need to be addressed urgently, considering that we are in a country that strongly believes in equality and freedom of association and assembly?
Did the African America and equally the immigrants decided on their own to self segregate themselves after realizing that the white man was not making any initiative to accommodate them fully in all matters ranging from social interaction to sharing the national cake?
Were Jefferson words of unity at the declaration of independence taken lightly or even without any valid meaning?
(We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness).
All the same, a point to note is that when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration, on July 4 2013, he owned hundreds of slaves.
With that in mind, were those words not sincerely coming out from the bottom of his heart and thus shelved and forgotten, the moment the ink dried when the constitution was written?
“We the people” which people were being referred to? White people, Black people, Caucasian, immigrants or who?
Is everyone fully embraced in a constitution that was written when a black man vote was counted as three fifth of a person and later accommodated through amendments?
America in time will open many people’s eyes after they start confronting the grave realities of the great nation they thought or imagined to be.
You will with time start observing, inglorious ignorance of racial stalemate stigma in a static society enhancing ideologies of the original hateful, hypocritical or sanctimonious approach towards solving the monstrous racism.
An entirely Machiavellian kind of approach (“whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assumption that all men (implying black people) are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature”)
Still, undergoing through a static racial impasse era, with the majority perpetually bound by its immediate tragic past and not likely to change in the near future.
It is evident that huge racial barriers exists but not of concrete as was in Berlin, or the proposed Mexican border wall, but of pure antipathy and animosity, that occasionally erupts and the same likely to blew up some day with a colossal force never felt before.
A white person entering a church and killing twelve people, a black man shooting a white man, a white man entering a club and killing many people, a white man killing 12 people in a school, a white policeman killing a black man for lack of a driving license, a black man killing three policemen, a terrorist opening fire to a crowd of spectators,……. It’s endless.
All the few examples are an expression of some form of hidden anger or frustrations mentioned above and the same continue building up since no one address the bare truth that has made the country divided along racial trends.
They miss the point when they imagine that the killings are as a result of existing gun laws whereas, it is as a result of some hidden racist(sic) anger that have been building up for many years.
The legacy of discrimination evident in every State and nothing is done to solve for no one address the issue with an open heart.
Ngugi Wa Thiongo an illustrious Kenyan novelist, being denied service at Cracker Barrel, is not an isolated case, but a proof of how real and deeply rooted racial profiling is in America.
There were however many like him that have undergone similar humiliations but remained in silence after getting immediate unbelievable shock.
Racial profiling with no foreseeable set up goals to end the stalemate stigma can also be evidenced by the existence of all black schools in most poor Southern States thus making Jimmy Crow a hero after death, and a further indication that his evil segregation ideologies, still reigns and his ghosts still haunts many.
Further racial segregation in housing, with the white people moving away from Towns to be away from what they term as black violence, thereafter leaving schools around the major cities to appear like just schools in Africa where you see no white faces.
Black violence further encouraged by the Police themselves since they cannot stop gangs while still at budding stages and thus making the white population to move away from gang infested areas.
The few whites that cannot afford the movement torturing their children even further in order to fit in such schools, and the same, eventually start behaving and cursing like black people so as to acquaint themselves and somehow get adjusted to the bellicose environment.
Such a big shame and a mockery considering that America was in the forefront in condemning Apartheid South Africa and yet the same or something similar still happening in their own country.
Racial profiling somehow identical to the dark South Africa of the sixties but this time, embraced with a lot of frustrations due to the impotent to bring about the much-needed change.
Were the blacks deceived by a word called “freedom” so that they could forget the struggle for racial and economic equality and after the same was not forthcoming, despaired and became obsessed with constant anger?
Surely there is ultimately an urgent need for change through maybe a national convention referendum embracing all races to try and arrive at a racial reconciliation for the same was never attempted or achieved by President Obama (as promised) during his two presidential terms.
We all the same cannot condemn the white man more than we can condemn the black man for both are equally to blame for the existing racial stigma.
Yes racism is the real monster to fear more than terrorism as long as a section of Americans, continue to glorify the leader of the dreaded KKK instead of discouraging him to abandon his ideologies of a white only country.
They let him loose because he is championing the rights of the white man but in essence, he is making white racism even more endemic and the same, spreading fast like wild bush fire.
Similarly, a monster to fear because the black people continue forming gangs as a way of expressing anger, or trying to prove their might and justifying their existence instead of trying to live in harmony so that the gap for racial divide can be narrowed.
The whites on the other hand urging their young ones not to mix with the black kid complicates matters even further for instant fear is instilled permanently.
The outwitting of both extremes minimize the chances of ever bringing about the long awaited racial reconciliation and consequently further widening the gap for racial divide or any meaningful reforms.
Being arrogant, cursing with rap songs, many tattoos, and even sagging pants to express anger, will not help the situation but rather worsen it.
Pastor Jeremiah wright fanatical radical approach of condemning the system, may also not solve the existing disparities in race but rather, widen the gap even further.
We can all say that freedom came but thereafter the black man was somehow left with hopelessness and suddenly made to face a solid wall and could not make any advancement without any basis for economic sustainability.
He had no land for example, and nowhere he could call a home and therefore he soon after despaired, and forgot the struggle for economic freedom and in a way continued serving the master just like before.
That’s the true genius for without enough capital the black man could not have survived after he was left on his own.
The better options of borrowing and affordable health insurance were only available to the majority of the white population and the black people somehow despaired in life, started selling drugs and breaking into stores and thereafter, only ending up languishing in jail.
The rest if lucky, end up receiving welfare in section eight homes for a limited time.
Limited time, since they will soon die due to poor health problems after being unable to afford a balanced diet, and not to mention the exorbitant doctor’s fees that cannot be paid by someone receiving government grants.
All the same, the black people continue earnestly looking forward to embrace the blind future without hope or optimism to any meaningful transformation in their life only to die a few years later.
Many in those final years will express their hopelessness but they will not be heard for the movements that fight for equality are not as active as before.
The same expression, is not a guarantee for it can still be curtailed, …..if you can recall the old librarian that equated the Presidential candidate Mccain with Bush, with a simple equation poster Maccain=Bush.
She was not lucky even though she was white, for she landed into problems and yet, she was in a land that claims to have freedom of speech and expression.
A CNN reporter and a black female just the other day humiliated while trying to express their freedom of speech and expression in direct question format shows total failure to accept criticism.
They had done it by simply asking President Trump touchy questions, but moments later, they were removed from the white house panel of journalists proving that freedom of expression has limits that can be curtailed not by the courts but by an individual.
Curtailing their guaranteed freedom of expression did not augur well with the rights of an individual since people are free to express themselves within limits of common decency and the method they choose should never be questioned.
Curtailed freedom of speech and privacy starting from the wanton half open public toilets where one is not given enough privacy while answering a call of nature, to black people being suspect all the time and monitored whenever they are spotted driving around an all white neighborhood.
The white population owns all the land that stretches miles and miles as far as the eye can see, while the majority black people are concentrated in poor urban neighborhoods resembling concentration camps.
Yet other middle income earners kept busy in prefabricated timber houses they continue paying mortgages for a lifetime while calling them homes since they know of no other home.
They work for the white people and the same behind the scenes,…. who enjoy their labor and in return pay them static meager minimum wages that never changes even in times of economic Global recession making opportunities a lose to lose situation.
Another clear example of racial segregation in economic sustainability and further confirming that land is for the whites only and a few black and colored people with means.
The white people were given “land” and the blacks received three words “free at last” as compensation for their many years of hard labor.
…Making many to disagree with Obama when they see all the injustices done to the minority races and immigrants and comfortably echo what he plainly got from one republican candidate “words don’t matter”
Freedom by words without monetary gains is unnecessary, ineffective and useless.
Obama came giving the same word promises “yes we can” “change we can believe in” “ Audacity to hope” but will words ever improve anything? Will those words ever achieve any meaningful transformation to the oppressed people?
There was no effective or meaningful change that was achieved during his time in office and the much awaited insurance scheme, challenged and made ineffective by the big players that want people to continue suffering.
Trying to solve the monstrous racism and equality is a battle that requires genuine collective efforts by involving immigrants, African Americans and the white people.
Sharing the national cake was the solution but it never happened and the oppressed desperate black people rejoiced too soon when they heard the word “freedom” and “free to vote” …They never asked the vital question then. Free to go where?… Africa? …Vote for who? Vote for the same people that had oppressed them?
The existing laws continue to oppress all due to the fact that police training methods are still the same like back in the days.
Trigger-happy black policemen are everywhere in New York, Chicago, Detroit with guns drawn while surrounding an all black club ready to shoot and kill at times their own un-armed innocent black people they think are a danger to society.
Yet others surrounding a strip club with only a few black people inside whom they think are a danger to society but, the same people are celebrating their elevation into marriage that is due in a day’s time.
They only later realize that the men were harmless after pumping many bullets on them, and some promising innocent lives are lost forever, a crime is committed, and no one will ever be held responsible for the sake of safeguarding the police image.
They will later implicate the victims with possession of dangerous weapons.
Weapons, that later turn out to be, .. a beer bottle or a glass of wine.
What a shame in the so-called free Nation?!
Yet still in other parts of Atlanta Georgia, on a quiet Saturday evening outside a teenagers club, two rival all black gangs Y&T (Young and Thuggish) and Black Mob would be challenging each other with guns.
A teenager is shot dead, ….all scatter to different directions and a human life goes to waste and no one is ever arrested to answer the charge as the police took too long to act.
Another teenager is killed in Chicago due to the same culture of violence that police watch as gangs fight each other or make no attempt to arrest their leaders when the same are at budding stages.
Many argue that the white man, don’t want the blacks to live in harmony and all they want is to see them killing one another like they would have wished to do to them if there was no law and order.
(Maybe those gangs should be utilized to go to wars that end many promising young lives that deserve living more than the gangsters).
They in a way reward the existence of gangs instead of trying to end them and give a raw deal to war veterans who tirelessly expose themselves to harms way while fighting for Americans
The many war veterans with major highways and parks named after fallen heroes and yet, those still alive begging at every corner of major intersections with carton raised high up with trembling hands (if they have any).
Those not on the Streets yet still languishing helplessly in heavily barricaded jails due to their failure to pay child support, or a traffic ticket with no expectations or any meaningful transformation during their few remaining years here on earth. ………SIMPLY SAD, SAD …….to be continued.
D.K GITAU
President
Kenyan Parents in USA
