I have watched many protests and marches on television, but they’re always somewhere else: Florida. Ferguson. New York. But never Baltimore. Not my Baltimore. My Baltimore has a lot of problems, but this isn’t one of them. Turns out I was wrong. Thank you to everyone who has checked up on me. I’m doing great, thank you. Yes, I live in Baltimore, but I don’t live or work anywhere close to the scenes of the riots.
If you had asked me about a decade ago what I thought about the Baltimore riots, I would have said something along the lines of “Those people are crazy … they need to stop getting into trouble, then they’ll stop getting arrested … etc” But I have since grown and evolved.
I absolutely do not condone violence against anyone – whether citizen or police. But the longer I have lived in America and the more I interact with Americans, I am beginning more and more to gain a new perspective and have a kind of empathy that I never did before. I still do not entirely have the Black Perspective, and I now understand that I will never have it – not like an African American anyway.
As a Nigerian/African/Immigrant, the easiest thing to do is watch these riots and reiterate my beliefs that African Americans are crazy. I have seen many Facebook posts, tweets, Instagrams from my people saying how crazy “these people” are. You’re so quick to call them thugs and animals. My people say that something like this will never happen in Nigeria/Africa. First of all, that’s a complete lie. We have way worse than this. I would rather have riots every day than have terrorists and armed robbers openly slaughtering people. Secondly, if Nigeria/Africa is so great, then why are we all here? Why aren’t we staying in our great nation where there are no crazy people? And how can we complain of America being a crazy place when we fight in our country in the name of ethnicity and tribe?
I don’t know who took this picture, but I find it to be pretty powerful stuff!
The riots in Baltimore City are not happening just because of Freddie Gray. They’re happening because of Freddie Gray and all the Black men and women who have suffered and died in the hands of the police. Police brutality is not just about racism, it’s also about power that isn’t controlled. Black people did not wake up on one random morning and decide to go riot. A lot of things have happened [and continue to happen] that is causing tension between Black and White people and between Black people and the police. I do not believe that every police officer is bad, nor do I believe that every Black person is bad either. There are always bad apples in every group.
Another powerful photo, culled from CNN
But while Nigerians/Africans/Immigrants are busy criticizing the Black people for doing what they’re doing, I hope you stop and realize that the Black problem is also your problem because deny it all you want, your ass is still Black. In America, you can be Nigerian, Kenyan, or Ugandan, but you are still Black. Sure, the average Nigerian/African may be less likely to drop out of school, get arrested, or go to jail, but it does not make you any less Black. And if shit were to hit the fan tomorrow and someone decides the annihilate all Black people, you’ll be right in there with them. I hope you also realize that you being in America, you having a job in America, you going to school peacefully, you being on social media talking nonsense, and you not being discriminated against openly and legally is all because some African Americans have paid the ultimate price.
Before we tell African Americans to get over slavery and move on, let us first count how many of our grand fathers were hung for being Black … and how many of our grand mothers were raped for being Black … and how many of our relatives never made it to have families of their own because they were left hanging from a tree for being Black … and how many of our fathers and brothers were wrongfully arrested and imprisoned for being Black. Today, we (Nigerians/Africans) are different from African Americans because we now come from two different worlds, but at the core, we are still the same. We are in the same boat fighting for the same thing; we just have different methods.
And lastly, remember that the African Americans you look down on now were once our fellow Africans, taken by force, and we are only here because they came here first to pave the way with their sweat and blood. At the very least, thank them for their service. The police officers make mistakes, but thank them, too for their service because they risk their lives every day for us, and some of them die in the process. Thank the military, too for the freedom you have in this great nation. And thank the government. America is far from perfect, but she’s a truly blessed and highly favored country.
Pray for Baltimore. Pray for America. Pray for the world. We all need prayers.
P.S. I do not support looting or burning or violence.
P.P.S. We’re only talking about this so much because it’s being televised and we can see, but imagine what goes on behind closed doors. Just imagine!
lost
Awesome write up vera.
Im very grateful for the arrest video we have because Freddy Gray would probably not have gotten the attention, talk less of the justice he deserves for his death.
Policemen/women across the nation needs to comply with the standardized protocols in place to do their jobs the right way (e.g call for paramedics if a suspects is verbalizing he needs an inhaler). And if with the recent trend of videos depicting cruelty on their part, this incident still happened in baltimore, then something needs to change within that taskforce.
The African-American community ultimately needs to educate their teenagers(male&female) on the process of getting justice. Destruction & looting does not solve anything, it only compounds the problem.
Baltimore, U.S, the World definitely needs prayers, may God help us all.
RIOTS ARE NOT GOOD
Thanks Vera, i love this statement, its so powerful “Police brutality is not just about racism, it’s also about power that isn’t controlled. “
I had to comment! It definitely is not just a “black” thing because white people view us all the same. Mathew Ajibade was Nigerian and he died in police custody in Savannah, GA. He was born in Nigeria and moved to MD when was young. And he suffered from police brutality and was killed. He was a good person, never caused any problems, but he did have an illness. His death could have been avoided if the officers took the time to realize he was having an episode.
African American here who is not African Culturally, thanks for the kind words. Thank you for understanding it from our perspective. Alot of times we feel the disrespect from everyone and of course Africans. BUT it takes great people like you Vera for getting our story out to other Africans who call us crazy. People think once slavery was over we were free. NO!!!! Slavery just changed into different forms called Peonage, Redistricting, Jim Crow, Prison Reform, Poverty and the War on Drugs. All of this was meant to control African Americans. We fought back hard and are trying to get out of this mess. We are not crazy we are fighting because we are all we got and we know NO one including Africans won’t lend a hand to help. BUT we got this one thanks for the article.
Wow Vera, a powerful piece. Well said sissy from another mother. So true, love it.
Vera, I do not know which Nigerian/African community you interact with, but your views are not representative of majority of Africans/Nigerians. If it is OK at the end of your write-up to state your distaste for violence, i think every other person has the right to condemn violence, if they hate it. I watch MSNBC every time, and Rev. Jackson will never support violence as a means of getting your ideas across. Many black Americans do not think violence is the right way to achieve anything. Articles like these can create the kind of situation we now have in South Africa, where indigenous blacks start killing foreign blacks. I am a Nigerian, and I do not think about black Americans, the way you have described. To those who think the way you described, this is an educative piece, just to let you know that majority of Nigerians/Africans do sympathize and imbibe the plight of the blacks in this country.
I think the African communities used to think of African Americans the way Vera described a few years ago, but our mindset has and is fast changing concerning (their and by extension our) plight. I think most Africans after so many years in America now understand the history and rational behind some of the choices of our African American folk. Even if they don’t voice it out or if they choose to turn a blind eye to it they understand and we think of it more than we care to admit. I too did not understand them in the begining but that has long since changed. I do not condone the violence of course. I do understand the frustration underlying it. The same group of people who use media to malign and forecast doom and gloom for AA’s are the same ones who take action to make that sure that it comes to pass. And then they hold it up as evidence of African American inferiority and justification of evil against them and (us). Americans really are sometimes wicked and diabolicaly cruel. The violence is because they are slowly watching innocent young men being killed consistently and the perpetrators of the crimes most often walk away scott free. It is a allow genocide that reinforces that the lives of especially African American men are worthless. That alone has and can plant seed of self destruction. Not to talk of AA men losing the will to live and stand up for their families and community. Lets bring this home. Imagine if another tribe of people was doing this to you consistently. What would you do? The stealing and looting of stores does not make sense. Their violence does, whether some “Black leaders” approve of it or not.
*slow* genocide