Growing Pride in Blackness

By L.DISANE

Blackness positivity is on the rise; we have unlearned a great amount of negativity to get to this point but the common perception still persists: Whiteness is automatically associated with a better life, while the opposite is true for Blackness.

In the South African context, I believe it started in the late 1600s when European missionaries recruited black natives to join Christianity. This divided black people into ‘the enlightened’ and ‘the backward’; and in order to meet standards set by missionaries an d avoid ridicule by those already recruited, black people chose enlightenment (Whiteness) as the best way of life. This period began the mass dumping of black customs. Centuries later, a system called Apartheid, based on separating people by race, was introduced. In this system, white people developed the infrastructure of the areas they occupied and left undeveloped the areas which were occupied by black people. Laws were also implemented which restricted the movement of black people to these undeveloped areas, while granting them access to white areas mainly for employment purposes. When these black employees saw the differences between their home areas and the white areas where they worked, they wished they lived in these developed areas; this further increased the strength of white is better.

Not all black people accepted this idea that white is better, and the most notable leader of the rebellion was Black Consciousness Movement founder, Steve Biko. People like him laid the foundation for today’s black person that has pride in themselves and takes responsibility for growing their lives according to their own vision, unaffected by the counterproductive brainwashing inflicted on them by white people.

Image: Everett Collection 

In closing, Biko says, “As we proceed more towards the achievement of our goals let us talk more about ourselves and our struggles and less about Whites.”