Anti-Black racism: A critical look

(Link on DailyTrust site)

The recent riots in the United States against the brutal killing of one George Floyd, an African American, by a White police officer, have once again highlighted not only the plight of the Black community in the country but also the persistent issue of racism against the Black race the world over.

Basically, people of all races consciously or subconsciously discriminate against people of other races in different subtle and blatant ways. However, the question of whether a particular race is more racist than the other remains debatable in the absence of any objective and exhaustive research in this regard. Yet, judging by the socio-cultural and tacit institutional recognition of racist attitudes and actions, countries of the Euro-American axis may appear more racist than others. This is, among other things, given the prevalence of unapologetic White supremacist groups, which blatantly push for preferential consideration for people of Caucasian origin i.e. the White on account of their race.

While their thugs are notorious for racially-motivated crimes, nationalist politicians effectively represent the political front of the racist tendency. With whole parties of their own or as influential members in other parties, they partake in politics and indeed win elections. They are likewise all over the public and private sectors and the security establishments of those countries.  

This explains why the Black is subjected to racial profiling in the Euro-American axis probably worse than anywhere else. The basic principle of the presumption of the innocence of an individual until proved guilty largely applies the other way round there when a Black person is involved. It’s quite common, for instance, for a Black dude innocently strolling into or around a typical White neighbourhood in, say, Los Angeles, to attract a phobic suspicion from the residents and even interrogation from the police patrol around simply because, being Black, automatically makes him a potential suspect until somehow proved otherwise.

Likewise, a typical Black fellow in a typical shopping store is viewed as a potential shoplifter, and is covertly or even overtly monitored by the store attendants. Even in George Floyd’s murder case that sparked the recent riots in the US, the store attendant involved was said to have suspected the victim of presenting a counterfeit $20 bill to buy a cigarette and therefore reported to the police who responded with their typical racist-motivated high-handedness when a Black man is involved.

In the Indo-Chinese axis also, the persistent racist-motivated harassment against the Black, which recurrently escalates into indiscriminate violence against African communities and individuals has exposed the hitherto largely unknown but deep-rooted Indo-Chinese anti-Black racism. In India particularly, there is a pre-existing culture of discrimination against the relatively darker-skinned Indians. The situation has also got worse for other vulnerable Indian communities since the beginning of the current nationalist government in the country under Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, a notorious Hindu chauvinist.

Arabs equally exhibit anti-Black racism in various ways. Their racism, however, is more of an individual tendency than an institutional or communal phenomenon, as it’s the case elsewhere. Interestingly also, Arabs are, ironically, more obsessed with their deep-rooted culture of clannism, which is a persistent residue of their pre-Islamic Jahiliyya culture, and which still effectively partly determines clannish and individual social status. This explains the failure of Arab nationalism championed by the likes of Jamal Abdul-Nasir of Egypt, and others. However, while this may not necessarily suggest less anti-Black racism, it explains their relatively less obsession with it, which, in turn, explains their relatively less aggressive show of racism against the Black at least compared to the foregoing.  

Now, though critics of racism against the Black are typically and rightly passionate in their criticisms, their largely simplistic perception of the phenomenon renders their anti-racism recommendations too unrealistic and indeed too idealistic to be adopted. They ignore the basic fact that anti-Black racism is a universal phenomenon; and that no race, including the Black themselves, is innocent in this regard.

Interestingly, while the non-Black races discriminate against the Black as exemplified in the foregoing, the Black betray anti-Black discrimination mostly in the form of subconscious glorification of the White and their choices and subtle preference for the relatively lighter-skinned among themselves. In fact, some even get carried away sometimes to sound or behave worse than the White racists. For instance, a particularly darker-skinned Black fellow is more likely to be mischievously taunted for his complexion in say, Nigeria, than in, say, Norway. He is also more likely to be discriminated against in a competitive environment in Nigeria on account of his ethnicity than he is in, say, Australia on account of his race.  

Likewise, despite the notoriety of the US police for racist-motivated high-handedness against the Black, a typical law-abiding but less-privileged Nigerian is much more vulnerable to police harassment, brutality, and, of course, extortion in the streets of Kano than he is in the streets of Kansas.

In short, whatever discrimination a typical Black fellow endures in any non-Black country on account of his race is less than what his typical African-based counterpart endures on account of his ethnicity.

Anyway, anti-Black racism is obviously borne out of deep-rooted racial stereotypes of the Black who are looked down on as less intelligent, less competent and less civilized compared to other races, which many attribute to genetic factors claiming that the Black race is naturally genetically disadvantaged intelligence-wise. However, while this claim is absolutely ridiculous as it contradicts the spirit of Divine Impartiality, it’s admittedly not easy to outargue its theorists in the absence of any instance in human existence where the Black race, in general, has ever matched up to, let alone outmatch, any non-Black race as a whole in any competitive human endeavour.

Legal injunctions, policies and other relevant measures can only address anti-Black racism superficially; also, while absolute commitment to relevant moral values remains the only permanent panacea for the phenomenon, the Black as a whole can only acquire appropriate recognition among other races according to the extent of their collective competitiveness in all competitive human ventures.  

COVID-19: Clearing up confusion

(Link on Daily Trust site)

No sooner had the distressing COVID-19 pandemic broken out than some conflicting and inconsistent scientific theories on, among other things, its origin, potency and the extent of damage it inflicts on human, begun to flow triggering the current confusion. 

Since then, reputable scientists in relevant fields with access to the most advanced scientific research equipment would always come up with a supposedly scientific theory only to be scientifically disputed or invalidated altogether after it had been vigorously promoted. Even the supposedly scientifically-proven effectiveness of lockdown and social distancing as preventive measures has been equally scientifically found to have been exaggerated.  

This has, of course, opened the door for all sorts of conspiracy theories over the pandemic in the face of the obvious ambiguity of the Chinese government’s official narratives on the origin of the virus and its (Chinese government) vehement refusal to cooperate with other relevant non-Chinese research centres in this regard. 

After all, all along, President Donald Trump of the United States has suspected foul play insisting that the Chinese government owes the world full disclosure of the circumstances of the outbreak; as he further alleges that the Chinese authorities had deliberately allowed crowds of infected people to flock out of Wuhan, where the disease was first detected, to different parts of the world except within China itself, which triggered the pandemic. He also accuses the World Health Organization (WHO) of conniving with China to systematically mislead the world over the virus; and, therefore, imposed unilateral sanctions on the organization by slashing and subsequently withholding the US financial contribution to it, which is by far the highest in the world.

Interestingly, though President Trump’s harsh criticism of China is apparently a calculated move meant to demonize it, his criticism cannot be entirely dismissed given his unrestricted access to the most sophisticated intelligence sources in the world. This is even though the US, which maintains arguably the largest stockpile of bioweapons in the world and, having, in fact, used it on different occasions in the past, cannot rightly claim the moral high ground in this regard. Besides, President Trump is also apparently driven by a personal vendetta against China, which he accuses of working discreetly to undermine his reelection bid later this year.  

Anyway, with the available scientific and circumstantial evidence that cast doubts on the Chinese narratives about the virus and the circumstances that led to its transmission and eventual outbreak, the most probable theory of what actually happened can only be conceptualized by looking at things in the proper context. 

China has over the last few decades managed to develop into a formidable world power representing a new dimension in the global power equation. This is notwithstanding how it has achieved that, which explains its notoriety for the alleged systematic abuse of intellectual property rights and other unethical industrial practices at the expense of Euro-American manufacturing and high-tech industries.

Countries locked in global power struggle are hell-bent on outmatching and, in fact, undermining one another at all costs. They play the game knowing that, regardless of the rights and obligations of nations under the international law, diplomatic conventions and other relevant treaties, a country’s worth is actually determined by, first and foremost, the amount of its military power, then economic, technological and other advantages. In other words, in international politics, and notwithstanding any supposed diplomatic engagements, a country has its way and even gets away with its excesses according to its military strength.  

A typical global power keeps and indeed always seeks to upgrade its arsenal of not only conventional but unconventional weapons, not necessarily to use it but certainly to literally brandish it as underlying bargaining tools as well. Biological weapons (bioweapons) are some of the unconventional weapons that a typical global power “produces” through painstaking processes of genetic manipulation of microorganisms.   

Being still developing in terms of scientific and technological sophistication compared to its major Euro-American rivals, China is obviously desperate to catch up with them on everything including the bioweapon technology. 

In the light of that, it’s quite reasonable to theorize that some Chinese scientists were probably handling some microorganisms genetically manipulated for bioweapon purposes when somehow at least one person got accidentally infected; and was diagnosed only after the virus had already begun to spread.   

By the way, the presumption of “accidental transmission” in this case is borne out of the absence of any plausible reason, at least for now, to suspect China of doing it deliberately. 

In any case, the situation has also cast doubts on the dedicated efforts said to be currently underway to develop medication and vaccine against the virus. This is given the pre-existing notoriety of the global pharmaceutical industry monopolized by a few pharmaceutical manufacturers driven by wolfish greed who have for decades systematically manipulated and exploited the vulnerable with impunity.   

Whether the development process of the medication is underway, as the manufacturers maintain, or it’s already stockpiled but deliberately withheld as a profit-maximization strategy, as some observers suspect, it’s obvious that the manufacturers and other major stakeholders in the global pharmaceutical value chain stand to make a killing of unprecedented amounts considering the global desperation for the medication, which will almost certainly trigger phenomenal panic bulk purchasing by countries and major distributors across the world.  

Also, while it’s hoped that the pandemic will soon disappear anyway, God willing, contrary to alarmist predictions, the world may never be the same again. The worldwide shock and anxiety associated with the pandemic may continue to haunt the world and may usher in an underlying atmosphere of phobia and irrational suspicion among nations with potentially disastrous consequences on global peace and stability.