Pal,
If you are 40 years and above then please seek parental guidance before reading this.
The subject of racism is age old. I don't like racism. I don't want anyone to discriminate against me on any issue based on my race. So I don't do that against anyone. I love everyone, both friends and foes alike. black, white, colourless, ...!
But me too, the same me, I would stand any day, come rain, come hurricane, and defend the right of anyone who chooses to be a racist! uhuh! I mean it.
So it happened in the land of Ghana. A lady cried loud along the coast that she was refused admission into some seafood loving/eating club based on her race! She said a man told her the club was meant for only whites. Meanwhile she was at the premises which promotes that club for the second time and had access to food just as she had the first time there without being told her skin does not qualify to eat at the restaurant! and of course; more complications to the story! but let's leave the side-tales to rest while we focus on the skin.
So this Okoro woman decided to blow horns of alarm. And many a response it was she got! Ghanaians were up in arms! how could it be that some foreigner comes onto their land to operate a racist club? on their own land! after independence? haram! musu!
But yours truly heard and my immediate response was: 'woman making noise without merit'. It reminded me of Obama's stupidity when some confused Harvard scholar Gates cried wolf that he was targeted by the police because he was black. O Yes! I looked deep down into the deep of the hole! and raised my head to look up at the horizon. I prayed the gods would let this turn into a beautiful legal battle of a true declaration of pro-racism against anti-racism for us to see which Ghanaian law could bar any group of whites or greens from deciding to associate with only their kind for some particular objective that clearly is no one's business.
I'm a man of freedom. I love freedom. but I know I can't just walk into anyone's house because I have freedom to move about. The club in question is certainly a privileged club. and there are many many clubs/associations/societies/groups/caucuses in Ghana which are nothing but privileged entities that discriminate in one way or the other! and the constitution of Ghana says no discrimination! The same constitution says 'Freedom of Association' and both provisions have caveats!
So I have looked at the constitution and I don't see any thing in there that prevents any greens from having a greens-only club like what the Okoro woman told us about. Yes the constitution says there should be no discrimination on based on race! yes! that is there. But this club must be looked at as what it is and not what it's not! and like I've stated, it's surely a privileged club formed by some individuals that can just exist in some corner without needing to serve the state any notification. It's more or less a private club. And so there can't be anything that can prevent the members from restricting it to only some race whether Ghanaians like it or not! Whether madam Okoro is a racist herself or not.
I mean, if a green man drives down the street of Accra and insists that his private car is shared with only people of his green race and so he won't allow any charcoal-blackman or nigger to sit in, nothing prevents him from insisting on that? and indeed nothing must stop him from having such a primitive mindset! Yes, he'd be on the land of Ghanaians alright but that car is his private space!
So it came as a disappointment to me when I was later to find out that the man accused of racism was said by the same Okoro woman to have apologized to her and stated that he was only joking and that he was even married to a Ghanaian. Ah damn! mE! I love drama, not anti-climax! That mischief part in me just kept wishing the man never apologized so we could see how far this case could go! but alas, the restaurant being operated at the place had no license and this hoax of racism led to their being found out! The place has been closed down by the govt forces until they seek proper legal basis for their business!
and you can read another angle to this hoax HERE
Pal, my point simply is that you may not like racism like I do not like it but it does not mean every perception of a manifestation of racism, real or hoax, must be denied or punished. you can speak against it but you must not deny the right of anyone from expressing hatred for your skin in a purely private context. Individuals must have the right to express any kind of hatred/dislike they so wish to express in their private capacities. And that includes racism.
I'm anti-racism but I'm pro-rights!
till we meet again.
ciao
No comments:
Post a Comment