By Abena Rockcliffe
Recently, I was introduced to the idea of black supremacy as a form of resistance to oppression and deprecation in the global black community. The idea is to use supremacy as a vehicle to secure dignity, self-love and self-respect. Once that is achieved, the consciousness secured may lead to blacks realizing that they are not superior but also not interior. This concept was posited as one worth the mental wrestle. When my preliminary thoughts were solicited, I responded, “I do not support racial supremacy for any reason or strategy.”
I am all for the upliftment of people. Therefore, I yearn for the upliftment of black people and for us to secure dignity in all its forms. But using supremacy as a vehicle toward dignity is dangerous simply because as humans, it’s easy for us to get lost in a process. These days we love to say “trust the process,” but suppose the process is a trap?
Someone may decide they want to lose 10 pounds in six months for their wedding and so they start exercising. That person can get lost in the process of seeing what their body can do and experiencing the other mental and physical benefits of exercise beyond weight loss that even after achieving that goal, fitness becomes a lifestyle. That example highlights the positive. But people can get lost in the process in a negative way.
Using black supremacy as a vehicle to black consciousness and self-respect is too risky. Least we get lost in the process and become like our oppressors.
There are flip sides to every argument and I wish not to make this editorial solely about the black struggle. But I must note one of the responses given during the discussion on this topic. It is easy to hold moral high ground when one has never gazed into the abyss in the context of Friedrich Nietzche’s famous quote. Maybe I would have felt differently if I grew up in South Africa during the apartheid or if I witnessed the lynching of a loved one. Or if I lived back in the day when the American law categorized blacks as less than human. Or even if I lived in modern-day America, in those states and towns where blacks are still viewed as less than human even though no longer supported by the law.
Don Singh died yesterday. May his soul rest in peace. I believe it has been about a week since he suffered a massive stroke. When news about the stroke hit, the internet was divided almost down the middle. For every “get well soon,” there was a “God don’t sleep.”
Even after his passing yesterday, people posted side by side death announcements. On the left was a graphic announcing the death of Nazar Mohamed that Singh posted a few weeks ago. On the right, was a graphic announcing Singh’s actual death. Mohamed is alive and believed to be well.
Singh was brutal on the internet and therefore people see it as fair game to rejoice over his demise. They see it as par for the course of the life he lived. They care not about the feelings of his loved ones. They give little regard to any pain or discomfort he might have felt in his last days.
I understand this response as a mirroring of the concept discussed earlier. People sometimes adopt extreme positions; even positions they claim to be against, as a defense mechanism.
I, myself, am a very reciprocal person. I too believe in the biblical teaching to strive with those who strive with me, fight against those who fight against me. But there is a limit to the weaponry I am willing to use in most fights. Even in my personal relationships, there are some “energies” I am willing to match. But before I reciprocate certain energies, I prefer to cut off any aunt, uncle, friend, sibling or parent from my life lest I lose my essence by meeting them at their frequency.
In the national context, if political persecution finds me, I prefer to start a new life in Denmark than to fight fire with fire. I prefer to leave and not look back than to engage in the gaze.
But again, while I have my own struggles, I haven’t faced the extreme. Just as I do not know how I would have responded if I lived in South Africa, I do not know how I would have felt if I was Singh’s constant target, if he had announced the death of my elderly dad while he was alive. But I do hope that I do not respond as some of his victims did. Because if Singh’s brief illness and death is retribution, then what will be the fate of those who keep the same energy?
Lets not get lost in the process.
