A question was posed to me by a white classmate many years ago – “Would you like to have been born white rather than black?”

At the time I had no good answer, but I think I do now.

Would I like to live in a world where I didn’t have to work 10 times as hard as my white counterparts just to get my foot in the door? Yes

Would I like to not have hundreds of stories about me and so many others that have had everyone’s eyes fixed upon them when they enter a store or venue, just because people assumed that they came to steal or vandalise? Yes

Would I like to have not heard kids in my school say that the only things my people are good for are cleaning and slavery? Yes

Would I like to not fall victim to systematic injustices, rooted in the colonialism and historical oppression that people seem so willing to forget? Yes

Would I like to not have the crimes of others blamed on my people just because we are easy scapegoats? Yes

Would I like for my skin colour to not be weaponised against me? To be able to stop giving people the confidence to boldly make false police calls whilst being taped, because they know that 9/10 times the ‘course of justice’ will be in their favour by default? Yes

Would I like for my people not to be gunned down because they looked slightly ‘intimidating’ or ‘suspicious’? Yes

Would I like to have never seen a brother dehumanised by law enforcement, pinned to the ground, with someone who claimed to be employed for the protection of the people kneel on his neck for 9 minutes with no remorse? Would I rather not be certain that had we removed the melanin from his skin, he would still be alive today? Yes

Would I like to not depend on likes, retweets, and viral videos of an incident for arrests to be made or for the judicial process to simply start to be put into motion? Yes

Would I like to stop seeing dead bodies of innocent people that look like me? Yes

Would I like to not have my skin colour be a death sentence? Yes

But would I rather be white? No

I love my skin colour and the culture and heritage it holds, but more importantly, my skin colour is not the problem. The systems built upon the foundations of colonialism and slavery, and consequently the views and behaviours they have bred are at fault. A few weeks ago, names like Ahmad Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd meant nothing to me, but now they saturate my news feed. Their claim to fame was at the cost of their lives, a price none of them wanted to pay. They were robbed of their dignity, drained of their life, and stripped of their destiny…

Pain and anger that has been under wraps for centuries have once again been brought to the forefront of the lives of so many. The reality of racism is dawning on some for the first time whilst others continue to live in denial of the truth. With all that we are being faced, the question is, where do we go from here?

Honestly, I don’t know, but here are a few suggestions:

• Education – Racism is a burden that falls on everyone. In order to change, we need to know what it looks like (not just in the extreme cases, but also in a day to day context), where it stems from, and how it is impacting the lives and shaping the viewpoints of our communities and nations. This knowledge also needs to be shared with others.
• Action – Knowledge without action is useless. Action can include but is not limited to: raising awareness, donating money to anti-racism charities and funds, and signing petitions. But before all this, action starts with each individual modifying their attitudes and behaviour towards minorities. Hearing the cries of the masses and refusing to be complacent and stay silent.

So, would I like to live in a world where I wasn’t black? No. But I would like to live in a world where being black didn’t put me in a position of inferiority so I wouldn’t have to be asked questions like that.

NB: The fight against racism is not mutually exclusive with uproar against other injustices in the world. This week I was confronted with the viewpoint of, “I’m suffering from discrimination A, therefore, until I experience complete equality with regards to A, why should I care about racism?” Must change be approached linearly? Just because you are more strongly tied to one cause, doesn’t mean you can’t be an ally of another.

“Racism is not getting worse, it’s just getting filmed.”

– Will Smith