I Love My Blackness and Yours too

Media and language have the power to spread a culture across oceans, and racist culture is not an exception. As a Nigerian who has been exposed both directly and indirectly to American culture, I can say that the racist ideology of black inferiority that exists in American society greatly impacted my knowledge and perception of blackness. American T.V. shows, movies, news networks, and even cartoons taught me that being black was a prerequisite to being inadequate, but that being African-American was at a deeper level of inadequacy.

Today, I know that this isn’t true. I have learned to love my blackness and others’ too, but that was not what I was taught. The bright colors of my T.V. screen often did not bare people who had the color of my skin, but when they did, a white tint always seemed to glaze over them: that was beauty. Black people on American news were not shielded by a white taint, but their blackness was used to villainize them. African-Americans were only portrayed as criminals and thugs, and they were never shown as poets, loving parents, or students. One only knows what they (he/she/they) see and experience, so my knowledge of African-Americans was extremely skewed. I saw African-Americans as lesser and other, and this shows how media can divide a people and destroy the unity, solidarity, and brotherhood that comes with a shared black identity.

American media perpetuated white standards of beauty in a country of black people. It taught me that I was subpar from the moment that my black skin absorbed any fragment of light. That television showed me what I should hate and want and dream, and finally, I have unplugged the cable, unsubscribed from the network, and put a mirror in place of that T.V. screen.