Reflections from Nairobi

As I sat in Nairobi during July 2016, on my first trip abroad, I saw the news emerging from the country printed on the front of my passport, and was reminded of a conversation I kept having with the loved ones in my life: What are the factors that seem to dictate how we Americans are interacting with each other that help perpetuate systemic racism, disenfranchisement, and premature death of Black, Brown, and oppressed people globally?

Some deeply socialized and misguided beliefs that kept emerging were:

1) “I do not believe your experience.” – the notion that those in power and their allies must question the experience of the disenfranchised, as if to say, you cannot possibly be telling an authentic truth, because you are too close to your “reality” and therefore are biased. If I am to believe your truth, I need someone aligned to power to tell your story from a “safer” distance/lens that scrubs clean the contextual history, policy, and systematic issues present.

2) “[insert ‘Global North country’ here] is a level playing field!” – the notion that when Black, Brown, and oppressed people raise issues of injustice, the history of chattel slavery, and/or the daily results of systemic racism, we are in fact pointing out our own failings in order to take advantage of that “land of opportunity.” That asking for “help,” fair and equal treatment, and/or mechanisms like affirmative action, is in fact asking for preferential treatment. This is where “reverse-racism” is constantly used as a tool to shut Black, Brown, and oppressed people down.

3) “Things are the way they are because they are the way they are.” – the notion that the things happening all around us are simply normal things, that have to do with Black, Brown, and oppressed people, and the improper way we navigate the world. That analyzing history, past/current policy/procedures, and overwhelming statistics do not point to systematic intent, but instead, again, point out our own failings.

4) “The [insert ‘Global North country’ here] Dream is alive and well!” – the notion that everyone in the ‘Global North’ has the opportunity to reach their full potential, so those looking for this privilege, should travel from far and wide to hopefully achieve success for themselves and their families. Sadly, I am getting more and more convinced that the construction of the [insert ‘Global North country’ here] Dream was and continues to be a little/no-cost labor advertising scheme heavily sold to the ‘Global South’ following the official abolition of slavery and shifting neocolonial narratives. In concert with trade policies, how else can these nations continue to convince disenfranchised people of color to work for unlivable wages?

While I recognize that these reflections do not present a cohesive set of solutions, I felt compelled to share them. This is driven by the willful obtuseness, both personal and political, that seems to obscure the critical issue we must confront daily: dismantling systemic racism and supporting the self-determination of Black, Brown, and oppressed peoples.

I am as aware as I can be that this post is my own privileged Black man perspective informed by many thinkers, writers, and loved ones. As a cisgender Black man raised in the northeastern United States, I am intimately aware and impacted by the ways that my context shaped my (mis)understanding of many things, including how anti-Blackness operates in internal, interpersonal, institutional, and structural ways.

I am continually in a learning and practicing mindset through engaging in self-care, self-love, familial connections, and collaborations that champion Black people and people of color. My own work to further my racial equity practice, as well as to examine my internalized anti-Blackness/misogynoir, takes the form of ancestral mediation, activism, reading, writing, and other multiple therapeutic contexts.

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