THE RAW MATERIAL

I got this idea two days (16 October) ago while reading the book “If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die” by Patti Bellantoni. It’s a book about Colour in Visual Storytelling.

I had watched the Spike Lee film Malcolm X about a year ago and I saw the jail scene, where Malcolm took note of the predominantly negative definitions of the word “Black” and the completely pure and positive definitions of “White” in the dictionary. The subtext of that scene was that ‘the White man writes the Dictionary’ (which is true, seeing English is in fact their language), hence the slander of the word “Black”.

After reading the segment in the Patti Bellantoni’s book dedicated to this Spike Lee movie, I decided to check Dictionary definitions of “Black” myself. I was startled to find that definitions of the “Black” are in fact pretty much bad. But more surprising was the fact that the negative definitions and symbolisms of the colour “Black” from the dictionary are also held to be true among Black people too. There is an undeniable link between Black as a colour and Black as a human race, as a people.

Of course a lot of definitions attributed to the colour Black are probably not true to us as a race, a couple of them are unbelievably negative and a few positive. I do not intend discussing them at all. I rather stick to those that are held true across White and Black people.

Definitions from the Dictionary that are held internationally

BLACK = Dirty/Soiled, Absence of Light/Low or No visibility, Undiluted/Raw Energy, Sinister/Evil/Wicked/Devilish, Sad/Gloomy/Calamitous, Secretive

WHITE = Free/Versatile, Diluted, Pure/Innocent/Clean, Cold, Counter-Revolutionary

Definitions from Wikipedia that are held internationally

BLACK = Simplicity, Mourning, The End, Secretive, Mysterious/Magical, Power/Force, Violence, Evil, Elegance

WHITE = Innocence, The Good, Honesty, Cleanliness, The Beginning/New, Neutrality/Exactitude, Lightness, Overpriced

I also looked up a Thesaurus for synonyms of “Black”. I was thoroughly disappointed because all the words associated with black were entirely negative. So I checked up “White” in the same Thesaurus and drew my conclusions on Black there, since Black is widely viewed as the opposite of White.

Synonyms from the Thesaurus that are held internationally

WHITE = Dull/Pale, Innocence, Safe

Hence, BLACK = Vibrant, Guilt, Unsafe

Subliminally, the Black man accepts all these descriptions of the colour “Black” correctly describes our true nature. Films portraying the Black man in negative light perform better in the Box Office than films with responsible Black men/women as leads. It has slowly crossed the realm of trivia and is slowly becoming fact. In the Americas, racial-stereotyping is common and is also an ongoing battle between the black man and law enforcement. But what we do not realize is we unconsciously stereotype ourselves. I will give an instance.

I was born in Nigeria and I lived there over 95% of my life. I moved to Canada to school. Yet whenever I found myself in a lonely neighborhood and a group of black males suddenly appear, the first thing that comes to my mind is Self-Defense. This happened about two or three times. These black males never for once attacked me. None even said a word to me; instead it was I that had to seek direction from one of them. Could it be foreign media that influenced my knee-jerk opinions about us? I beg to differ. I am as African as can be in this Modern day. It goes deeper than the White man’s influence and has its roots in the Black man’s skin colour. We have been programmed by this world, and the Media is certainly not the sole propagator of this phenomenon. To see Black as: Dirty, Devilish, Guilty, Unsafe, Violent, etc.

In the book “If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die”, it is taught that humans perceive colour as communication tools. That colour can be used to manipulate perception. Imagine walking into a room that is painted pitch-black. Your reaction would be completely different from walking into an off-white coloured living room. That is how much colour communicates to we humans.

Right now there is little to be done to eradicate our collective negative image. It is our curse. Africa, a people accounting for about 14% of the world population at approximately 995million, has been drenched and soaked into a pile of negatives with just a pinch of positives. It will take more than a few stellar individuals (Nelson Mandela, Fela Kuti, Didier Drogba, Barrack Obama, Beyonce, Tupac, etc) to give us a collective face-lift.

I can’t but view this position as God’s way of making the White man (and other light-skin coloured folks) more “White”. Think about it. Why is there Evil? To make Good even more desireable. Why is there Crime? To make Law and Order more appreciable. Why are there natural disasters? To make natural peace more peaceful. Why are there Wars? To make Peace more enjoyable. Why are people Lighter than the black man? To make the Black man even Darker. And vice versa.

So the question is, what is the way forward?

One thing I’m sure of is that God did not just create so many black men to make the White man look even better without giving us a fighting chance. I mean, if we were aaaall soooo negative, we pretty much should have been wiped off the face of the earth long time ago. We could as well have been Endangered Species by now. But the fact that we are still alive and there are still so many of us, means we still have skills to negotiate our way through this world.

I’d like to make an example using European Football. There are rich teams, there are average teams, and there are poor teams. The expectations among the rich are often to qualify for the yearly Champions League and/or possibly win it, along with winning other trophies. Among the average teams, stability is often the watchword, with trophy winnings being only an after-thought. For poor teams with little to hope for, keeping their heads above the water with their limited resources is key. However, a proficiently managed poor team can in fact enjoy stability for years and years. An example will be David Moyes’ 11 years at Everton and Montpellier’s rise to the French premier league (the Ligue 1) title in 2012. This requires increasingly competent managerial skill, starting from recognizing the strengths of the team being managed and working it to its full potential.

Among the shitload of negatives piled on the Black man’s head, I spotted positives.

RAW/UNDILUTED ENERGY, VIBRANCE, SIMPLICITY, ELEGANCE

If Economic policy could be employed to exploit our major strengths to the maximum, we can finally stare the World in the face and tell it FUCK OFF!!

The idea is to build Africa through our expansive Man Power and Raw Undiluted Natural Energy: Building simple but elegant and functional structures instead of flamboyant, world-record beating and high maintenance infrastructure. A focus on Transportation: building and reconstructing Roads and increasing its Networking capacities; revamping the Train system and improving its interstate networking in a simple structural way. Simplifying national Education and awarding Mass scholarships to outstanding students to study abroad, call it outsourcing our education – it’s funny but that’s what the rich in Nigeria do anyway. So why not let’s embrace it as a nation and continent? Reforming the health care to basic first aid and medicinal procedures and also outsourcing more complicated health hazards to nations with stronger health care.

I have honestly have no further suggestions with regards the Economic and Social policies that could be influenced by these principles I listed above, especially with regards to Electricity.

But if the Black man should unanimously agree to disregard other flamboyant dreams (yes, I’m talking of Vision 2020) and just stick to our God-given strength: RAW ENERGY, VIBRANCE, SIMPLICITY, and ELEGANCE; and if we can keep these words as our driving force and principles, we can truly achieve business, economic and social stability and become the envy of the world.