By Dr Aroms Aigbehi

One day, my wife and I were travelling from Miami, Florida to Cape Coral, Florida, USA. We had to drive through US 75. That road is Long and lonely, with very few petrol stations. Remember not to fall asleep because the road is straight , as if someone used a laser beam to measure it.

If you miss the last patrol station before the long straight you are in trouble when you run out. Because you will get stuck halfway at the Alligator Alley. You will find out soon enough why they call it the Alligator Alley.

The car was running low on gas, as the Americans would call it. ( I will further call it petrol.) So I decided to stop and ask if someone knows how far the next petrol station was. Because, I could only make another 40 miles with what I had. If it was too far from it I would rather go back to Miami to refill because I don’t like alligators.

So, we came to this nature reserve area and there were lots of people there. I felt safe. I parked the car, left my wife in the car and I walked about 100 meters away where other cars were parked. I saw two ladies and decided to ask them. I approached their car and immediately they spotted me they roll up the car windows and warned me to stay away from them. They were very scared and locked the doors of the car and drove off immediately.

Guess what? They drove to the other side of the park 100 meters away and parked next to my car with my wife sitting inside. There they felt safe because now they were three white women there. Remember the saying, there is safety in numbers.

I later found a man who politely told me that the next petrol station was just 10 miles away. So, I thanked him very much and started moving back to my car and these two women were right next to it..

Now, I was thinking, I hope these women don’t decide to shoot me to protect themselves from this ‘Black maniac’. I was trying to signal my wife to come out of the car at least to pretend she knew me, so the other women stay calm, but she was too busy with her magazine that she didn’t see my act of desperation. Now, I was thinking. I have protected you all my life, at last you have the chance to save me and you are reading a magazine.

Luckily, as I got closer the women thought the place was getting too dangerous and they drove away leaving my poor wife there to face the black maniac alone. When I got into the car, my wife said she didn’t notice anything.

Lesson Learned

No matter what you have achieved in life, as long as you are a Black man you remain a suspicious character and someone people have to watch out for. Except of course you are Barack Obama or Kofi Annan or maybe Denzel Washington. What is the difference? Everybody knows these men. They know they are not hooligans but not many people know me in Florida, for them I am just another Black man.

Primal instinct says, Black man is dangerous, RUN. That is not the time to figure out if the dude is Barack Obama or Kofi Annan, because then the same women would have come out of the car for an autograph. That is what you do when you get home. Then you feel regret. In the heat of the moment they must have been thinking, what a stupid and dangerous Black man? And I was thinking, some stupid White women? Actually, I thought we were all victims of circumstances. I wonder what ever happened to these women in the past. It was hurtful, but that is one of the realities of life.

I can just imagine their story in the next Tupperware meeting about how they escaped death on the US 75 from Miami to Naples from a manic black rapist.

Whether you like it or not, black people have a reputation, an image. It is that reputation that makes people to disrespect us. Not necessarily due to our colour. If we were green with the same reputation we would still get the same treatment. Then it will be the green people who did it.

Anytime, you see someone cheating, lying, doing corruption and other vices that is now the order of the day in Africa. Say something, do something. Remember, if you don’t, you are a party to creating the environment of disrespect black people face daily, whether for a job interview, or at the airport or at the restaurant. It is the same thing. We are being disrespected all over the world, no matter how rich you are. If you have a degree from Nigeria, they say it’s fake. I wonder why?

The transformation of the Black race must start with Nigerians because ONE of every SIX black person in the world is a Nigerian. So, we don’t have a cheating Nigerian, no, a cheating black man, Not a corrupt Nigerian, no, a corrupt black man, etc. You know how we can tell if someone is an Igbo man and the other is a Yoruba? White people can’t do that. In Europe and America Black is Black.

In Europe you don’t have corrupt White man, no, you have a corrupt politicians and a stealing dentist. Why, because the society don’t accept these vices and in Africa we accept them, and celebrate the people. That is why we are all labeled as such. We respect thieves, corrupt people and high level hooligans too much. So, we have branded ourselves to be such. Birds of the same feathers flock together they say.

No normal people sell their own people as slaves, Loot everything that belongs to everyone and bring it to other nations to develop themselves, steal food donated to their refugees, allow their citizens to live in disease and squalor. No, nobody that does that gets respected. The only different is, because the other people don’t know you personally, the only thing they see first is your colour and they base their judgement on that.

Yes, I know, it is wrong and I am not condoning discrimination but remember, if a lion is pursuing you, that is not the time to find out if it is a trained circus lion or one that escaped from the local zoo.

It’s time we hold ourselves to a higher moral and ethical standards. It is only by doing this the black race will ever gain respect from the world.

Source: Opinions.Ng

We here in Africa are yet to experience a serious enough existential threat. That is the only thing that keeps people together, the fear of being wiped out of existence. The corrupt still hold sway in power and the rich stay richer by feeding off the poor. The government becomes more corrupt and richer at the expense of the people.

They are very comfortable doing so. They can rub it in our faces while we applaud them. It sickens me and it should to any other reasonable thinking African. I am not generalizing because i already know people on this faceless forum would come and still say not everyone is as how i described when they very damn know well where i am headed.

Well, you should have used your GPS to safe yourself that drama and if you are a frequent traveler you should know there is always service center between 20 to 30m on I-95 and 75.

Have you experienced “nice racism” that’s the type that frightened me the most.

Nice racism is when a white person act so nice to you...not knowing he or she had just called the police on you

On point.....

Nobody hate black people. They are just viewed as inferior. Black people are believed to be closer to Apes. I wonder why I rarely see Asians complain about racism. The whites believe Asians are more intelligent than they are. Japan, China, South Korea, and even North Korea are technologically advanced. Their countries are extremely rich. The Asians have immense love for their culture and language. There is no respect for the black man at all. You want to know why? Because Africa, the origin of the black man is ensnared in famine, poverty, and underdevelopment. Another reason for this is because they created the countries we live in and we rever their language at the expense of ours. We must accept the fact that for black people to regarded and respected by other races, we must build Africa. But how can we build Africa when we have country like Nigeria that is filled with tribalism, hate, religion intolerance and killings? We should split Nigeria so that tribes that are compatible can live and grow together. The only way police brutality against African-Americans will stop is when we begin to have our Japan, China and Singapore in Africa. That is when the 'superior' whites will give Africans and her descendants respect.
This is my take

Imma read this first then comment later, not a lazy youth.

Modified

It was a great read. Don't dull it, racism is real. Forget globalisation.

Here in Nigeria, we have tribalism, we see other tribes as shit, this is common among the igbo folks, whenever they see an Hausa person, what you hear is ONYE HAUSA.

And now when they travel outside and the whites does the same they starts shouting RACISM upandan

Oga i am willing to suffer Racism in USA ... Afterall here in Nigeria i cannot look for a job in any Ekiti state Governent Ministry because i am not from Ekiti. The same way an Abia man will never get a job in my state Government ministry

Racism is everywhere.
Even here in Nigeria

Yarns*...how far,daddyfreeze don lost for nl?

Na wa

Noted

hmm

we will win when others fail.

.

Thanks for sharing!

Even we black people hate ourselves

It shall be well.

deedeedee1:
Nobody hate black people. They are just viewed as inferior. Black people are believed to be closer to Apes. I wonder why I rarely see Asians complain about racism. The whites believe Asians are more intelligent than they are. Japan, China, South Korea, and even North Korea are technologically advanced. Their countries are extremely rich. The Asians have immense love for their culture and language. There is no respect for the black man at all. You want to know why? Because Africa, the origin of the black man is ensnared in famine, poverty, and underdevelopment. Another reason for this is because they created the countries we live in and we rever their language at the expense of ours. We must accept the fact that for black people to regarded and respected by other races, we must build Africa. But how can we build Africa when we have country like Nigeria that is filled with tribalism, hate, religion intolerance and killings? We should split Nigeria so that tribes that are compatible can live and grow together. The only way police brutality against African-Americans will stop is when we begin to have our Japan, China and Singapore in Africa. That is when the 'superior' whites will give Africans and her descendants respect.
This is my take

Nice one.

That's really bad.

Too long.
Those white women are the worst when it comes to racism. Not all sha o.

The person wey snake kill him papa, if he sees lizard go run. - This is not racism but stereotypes.

I was in a bus loaded with black people heading to hotel last week. The Redneck bikers were also lodged at the same hotel and I think they were having their annual road ride. 2 of them were walking towards our bus as we were about to pack and we panicked thinking we were about to be gunned down .

This is a very stupid read.

Opinionated:
By Dr Aroms Aigbehi

One day, my wife and I were travelling from Miami, Florida to Cape Coral, Florida, USA. We had to drive through US 75. That road is Long and lonely, with very few petrol stations. Remember not to fall asleep because the road is straight , as if someone used a laser beam to measure it.

If you miss the last patrol station before the long straight you are in trouble when you run out. Because you will get stuck halfway at the Alligator Alley. You will find out soon enough why they call it the Alligator Alley.

The car was running low on gas, as the Americans would call it. ( I will further call it petrol.) So I decided to stop and ask if someone knows how far the next petrol station was. Because, I could only make another 40 miles with what I had. If it was too far from it I would rather go back to Miami to refill because I don’t like alligators.

So, we came to this nature reserve area and there were lots of people there. I felt safe. I parked the car, left my wife in the car and I walked about 100 meters away where other cars were parked. I saw two ladies and decided to ask them. I approached their car and immediately they spotted me they roll up the car windows and warned me to stay away from them. They were very scared and locked the doors of the car and drove off immediately.

Guess what? They drove to the other side of the park 100 meters away and parked next to my car with my wife sitting inside. There they felt safe because now they were three white women there. Remember the saying, there is safety in numbers.

I later found a man who politely told me that the next petrol station was just 10 miles away. So, I thanked him very much and started moving back to my car and these two women were right next to it..

Now, I was thinking, I hope these women don’t decide to shoot me to protect themselves from this ‘Black maniac’. I was trying to signal my wife to come out of the car at least to pretend she knew me, so the other women stay calm, but she was too busy with her magazine that she didn’t see my act of desperation. Now, I was thinking. I have protected you all my life, at last you have the chance to save me and you are reading a magazine.

Luckily, as I got closer the women thought the place was getting too dangerous and they drove away leaving my poor wife there to face the black maniac alone. When I got into the car, my wife said she didn’t notice anything.

Lesson Learned

No matter what you have achieved in life, as long as you are a Black man you remain a suspicious character and someone people have to watch out for. Except of course you are Barack Obama or Kofi Annan or maybe Denzel Washington. What is the difference? Everybody knows these men. They know they are not hooligans but not many people know me in Florida, for them I am just another Black man.

Primal instinct says, Black man is dangerous, RUN. That is not the time to figure out if the dude is Barack Obama or Kofi Annan, because then the same women would have come out of the car for an autograph. That is what you do when you get home. Then you feel regret. In the heat of the moment they must have been thinking, what a stupid and dangerous Black man? And I was thinking, some stupid White women? Actually, I thought we were all victims of circumstances. I wonder what ever happened to these women in the past. It was hurtful, but that is one of the realities of life.

I can just imagine their story in the next Tupperware meeting about how they escaped death on the US 75 from Miami to Naples from a manic black rapist.

Whether you like it or not, black people have a reputation, an image. It is that reputation that makes people to disrespect us. Not necessarily due to our colour. If we were green with the same reputation we would still get the same treatment. Then it will be the green people who did it.

Anytime, you see someone cheating, lying, doing corruption and other vices that is now the order of the day in Africa. Say something, do something. Remember, if you don’t, you are a party to creating the environment of disrespect black people face daily, whether for a job interview, or at the airport or at the restaurant. It is the same thing. We are being disrespected all over the world, no matter how rich you are. If you have a degree from Nigeria, they say it’s fake. I wonder why?

The transformation of the Black race must start with Nigerians because ONE of every SIX black person in the world is a Nigerian. So, we don’t have a cheating Nigerian, no, a cheating black man, Not a corrupt Nigerian, no, a corrupt black man, etc. You know how we can tell if someone is an Igbo man and the other is a Yoruba? White people can’t do that. In Europe and America Black is Black.

In Europe you don’t have corrupt White man, no, you have a corrupt politicians and a stealing dentist. Why, because the society don’t accept these vices and in Africa we accept them, and celebrate the people. That is why we are all labeled as such. We respect thieves, corrupt people and high level hooligans too much. So, we have branded ourselves to be such. Birds of the same feathers flock together they say.

No normal people sell their own people as slaves, Loot everything that belongs to everyone and bring it to other nations to develop themselves, steal food donated to their refugees, allow their citizens to live in disease and squalor. No, nobody that does that gets respected. The only different is, because the other people don’t know you personally, the only thing they see first is your colour and they base their judgement on that.

Yes, I know, it is wrong and I am not condoning discrimination but remember, if a lion is pursuing you, that is not the time to find out if it is a trained circus lion or one that escaped from the local zoo.

It’s time we hold ourselves to a higher moral and ethical standards. It is only by doing this the black race will ever gain respect from the world.

Source: Opinions.Ng

You have a point but my disappointment is that you allowed the actions of two paranoid unknown white skinned american women to inspire this write up. And more sadly they made you look down on yourself and people. Yes Africa and Africans are always protrayed in bad light. But from your write up that area or route seems not to have the best of security. The women might have heard stories about the area same as you. Same way you were security conscious of the surrounding by going the extra length to making sure you have enough gas so as to not get stranded in that area in as much as that area is dominated by white skinned folks is same way they became security conscious on sighting a male approaching them in that area. May be it was your appearance some people just naturally have a bad mean appearance or maybe they were just being paranoid or maybe they saw a dark skinned man. But you opted for the later. They might have acted same if a menacing white skinned male was approaching them. Or they might have acted differently if a very good looking young dark skinned male approached or a dark skinned priest approached. I am sure you wouldn't have come up with this write up. if similar actions were taken by 2 dark skinned women. Which then begs the question "are you being racist against yourself?" We as a dark skinned people must not succumb to seeing ourselves the way people of other race sees us. There is absolutely nothing wrong with us. Africans are indeed wonderful people. If the wrong set of people assume power and deny their people food, quality education and basic human amenities no matter the race of people they would find themselves exactly if not worse than africa. same way their are notorious african american neighbourhoods and a person whether white or dark skinned becomes security conscious at the sight of a dark skinned man when they are in those neighbourhood is same way there are notorious white american neighbourhoods and a white or dark skinned person becomes security conscious on sighting a white skinned man in that neighbourhood . The difference is the notorious african neighbourhood is over publicized and blown out of proportion.

MY CASE IS DIFFERENT