Against the backdrop of continuous racist attack, I found a piece I think I should share

UNDERSTANDING BLACKNESS
Short Essay by James Ugwa Shalom
"racism was like a Cadillac because they make a new model every year. The names change, he charged, but the game’s the same.” Malcom X.
In the wake of resumed racial attack, brutality and continues evil orchestrated against the black race, it is important to give an understanding into what blackness means. Nina. G. Jablonski, author of Skin: A Natural History pointed out that "Prejudice cannot be eradicated by mere tolerance. It is only a deep understanding, which can eventually lead to the demise of racism."Blackness is a term that many have struggled to define. Though many have their perspective on the term, but it is difficult, maybe preposterous to attain a universal acceptable definition due to the prejudice against the black race. The black race is faced with stigmatization, persecution and all unimaginable evil not because of their pigmentation but rather because of distorted views and definition of the term. It is in this light that I will attempt to give a definition on the term "Blackness" using moderate subjectivism to point out the real definition of Blackness. This, may vary from the definition those who are in perpetual hate for the black race have.
Western civilization used race in order to create a "single great collective story" (Carter J.K, Race. A theological account, P. 386) into which the black "black race" did not belong. It should be noted that this prejudice began with slave trade, when Africa was invaded and able bodied men were taken to work in western Plantations. The abolishement of slave trade did not abolish the perspective and prejudice that the trade created. " the British don't slave traders and slavers because they are racist. They become racist because they use slaves for great profit in America and devise a set of altitude towards black people to justify what they've done. (BBC 4. Racism: A History. The colour of money, 2007)". Slave trade created the "inferiority of the black race" a term I view as a psychological lie developed by racist to further perpetuate their hatred for the "black race".
Blackness is not define by the diverse nations in the African continent as well as those spread across other continents nor the Afrocentric features of a dark skin, built body, short hair etc, as they are black people of Africa descent who have fairly light skin and other features. Racist use colour as their basis for judging Blackness, but as I earlier pointed out, this is nothing but distorted view and a hatred they were taught since conception. To understand Blackness one must look beyond colour. Blackness is rooted in values which includes human dignity, unity, peacefulness, communalism, respect for the age, spirituality, family loyalty, classlessness and to mention but a few. Blackness means A racial identity of a set of people that are characterized by dark and lighter skin with a core value that revolves around unity, human dignity, peacefulness, respect for the age, spiritual alertness, maintaining natural order of things and having ancestral root in Africa. The above definition is not a theory of race rather an attempt to draw the line on what blackness means and to live in such consciousness.
It might be obvious from what has been written so far that the concept of blackness has a more important sphere than just colour. This becomes important as it points out that Blackness has rooted meanings and value rather than a biological features use by those whose view is polluted by hate for the people of colour. Additionally, it the rise of "westernization" it is important that the Blackman understand his Blackness and the values that comes with it in order to keep his mind unpolluted with Western views and opinions that tends to perpetually stigmatized the black race.
In conclusion, the humiliation of the Blackman based on the wrong notion created by slave trade, and a race-taught hate is nothing but a vague understanding of what blackness is and stands for, and as Luther rightly pointed out, "Men should not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character."

REFERENCES
BBC 4. Racism: A History. The Colour of Money, 2007.
CARTER, J. Kameron. Race. A Theological Account. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008