COLOUR, TRIBE AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN
I see colour, tribe, sexual orientation and top tier privilege. I have met a number of people who tell me that the above issues don’t matter but I call that bluff. In the present world, your skin tone is a means to an end. It is a means by which you are either listened to or disregarded. It's like a sieve, it separates maize from chaff. In my country, your tribe will get you through a number of doors. It will aid you in climbing the corporate ladder easily. Your tribe which is mostly identified by the last name can either build you or destroy you. Top tie privilege is a spring that very few of us will ever get to drink from. If you are not born in it, you either cultivate it or marry from it. Those are the only choices one has. It's the kind of privilege that is mostly enjoyed by the rich kids of Beverly Hills or in my case, corrupt politician progeny.
My reason for choosing to see all these social issues that are mostly used as weapons against us is mainly because they exist. It baffles me that one can choose to pinpoint the fact that an individual is human but erase their colour. Yet the human being is black or white. I choose to see black, white and brown but this does not mean that I act on them. I don't discriminate against colour tribe or sexual orientation, I acknowledge their presence. I don't think that a black person is better than white or vice versa. I mean #black don't crack but that's just a Twitter hashtag, one that cannot be used in real life. When a young black man is gunned down for simply walking down the street by police officers that is colour in play. When a white male sex offender falls through the crevices of the judicial system that is colour in play. When schoolchildren in South Africa were secluded from white kids during apartheid that was because of colour!
In Kenya, during the 2007/2008 post-election violence a lot of acts against humanity were committed to individuals of a certain tribe. Women were sexually assaulted while men were murdered because of their last name. All this was on the basis of tribe. The Rwandan genocide left a murky wound on the country. It’s a sad tale that will be told to generations to come all this because one tribe was seen to be of less value. When the Rwanda Patriotic Font were up in arms against the Tutsi, they left 80,000 Tutsis dead. So please acknowledge tribes. Instead of painting a facade that is “I only see the inside”, we should acknowledge people in their different forms and not in the forms we are comfortable with.
I want you to see my colour, identify my tribe my sexual orientation and the kind of privilege I hail from. All these things are the building g blocks of who I am. When you accept all this you are not only accepting me but also acknowledging where I come from an this will make it easier for basic understanding.
I choose to see colour, tribe, sexual orientation and degree of privilege for they have a lot of say in the person I am.