₦airaland Forum

ohumonkama:
I'm forced to respond to this though i hardly ever do on this forum.

Of course racism is true and I think we've all had our own Fare share of it. But my biggest problem is not with racism (from white folks) but with the fact that we hate ourselves as Nigerians/African and blacks even more than the whites hate us.

Haven lived and worked in quite a number of countries I keep asking myself if I would have had half the opportunity I have today if I was in Nigeria. Not because I am not competent but simply because I am black.

I have had white men as my drivers but in my own country we all know it is impossible. Once a fool with curly hair shows up, even a stupid black Indian that shakes his neck like chicken that is about to die will be so celebrated to the point that our police will even be made to escort him wherever he goes. He will literally be living the life a nigerian can only dream of. You will see this a lot in portharcourt.

I have learnt that people will only treat you how you treat yourself. Nobody will value what you don't value. Until we Nigerians, and Africans at large start valuing ourselves the world won't care about us.
There is no country in this world where a foreigner will be a preferred candidate for a job when a national of the country has better qualifications except in Nigeria and most African countries.

To cut the long story short...I hope someone will read this and learn to stop celebrating the hungry and frustrated foreigners in our own country at the expense of our people.

Another important point to note is this...take a quick look at most comments on NL on other issues ....its always torn between ethnic divides which shows that if left alone, we will even subdue our own brothers because we feel we are better/superior to other tribes.

What is racism..that feeling that you are superior to other races ( in my own words). I think we really do have a long way to go.

Thanks

aim5:
Melanated people need to stop treating white people like gods. I mean why would you worship a group of people are genetically recessive?.. These people came from blacks and they've proven to be a creation gone bad. Also I blame the corrupt system in Nigeria. I mean no Nigerian or African for that matter should have to leave Africa, a land blessed with natural abundance to go and be a work slave in Europe. It makes no sense. If these African governments can finally fix corruption and other problems in the society, then Africa will rise on top and prosper.

engrshakespeare:
Ur insult was uncalled for, ur comment is the only immature among d lot. Carry your frustrations on your person, you don't have to share.

pmc01:
Summary- There is no place like home. Chikena! Sorry about your predicament Oga.

jayriginal:
As in some people ehn? A security check is what OP is complaining about. Perhaps there was some profiling and stereotyping there, but racism?

OP if you were to board a plane and you heard someone was being searched on suspicion of being a boko haram member wouldn't you want the security to be thorough in their search?

Its something like that that happened to you. I don't see racism there, I see caution.

Just for the records, something similar happened to me and I even missed my connecting flight in Atlanta. I knew it was because I was coming from Nigeria. My passport was bent every which way, put under a special light, and when the guy wasn't sure, he called someone else to take a look. All the while I was being bombarded with questions.

All the people who passed through that booth before me were cleared quickly but I spent ages. I felt bad but I understood.

Last word; sometimes the people who see racism everywhere are the real racists.

MadCow1:
Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris: Ihad finished Check-in procedures and was on my way to the Duty free lounge when I realized that the security screening point I knew has been closed. So I approached a Security Gurad and politely asked for directions to the Check-in lounge. That was where shiit went South really fast.

He asked for my Boarding pass to which I gave him easily thinking he needed it to point me in the right direction. Next he asked for my passport to which I also gave him. Mind you, my passport pouch contained 3 Nigerian Passports (2 expired ones and the valid one). Next he started questioning me, saying where was I going and what was my business in Paris. He started saying I looked familiar. I asked him if my familiarity was with regards to a famous person or a criminal and he didn't respond. He then proceeded to ask me to open my hand luggage for a search to which I just started laughing. I knelt down in the center of the Airport and opened the bag for him. He barely looked inside before handing me my Passport and boarding pass and pointing me to the security screening point that led to the lounge. I thought my ordeal was over.

I get into the lounge, find a seat and ordered a Beer. Next thing I hear my name over the Public address system asking that I approach the check in counter. When I got there, lol and behold, 3 French soldiers (Gendarme) were waiting there and then beckoned me to the side of the check in counter and started this full body and luggage search in the full glare of the entire Airport. I just started laughing really brightly as I realized that I had been targeted. They rifled through my luggage, pulling out my stuff and just scattering them around, my pockets, patted me down and ran more questions of where I was from and where I was going to. At that point, I stopped answering any questions they had I said they can search me all they want, subject me to internal screening, but I was done speaking to them. I just continued to stand there and kept smiling. When they were done with the search and interrogation, they left me there to sort my stuff out on my own.

When I returned to my seat, I just sat down, with all eyes on me, I put my head down and wept. I felt so violated. All this because I asked for directions within an Airport to the security screening point.

latitidejavu:
Sorry @OP, why should you feel bad? I may be wrong but I believe if you are self-confident no alleged racism can make you feel bad. You showed them you weren't a push over by threatening to sue them. That is it, you were victorious. I went for one training in Germany and I was the only black in that section of town. For one good month i didnt see one black face. I was walking like the king. I was pitying their miserable lack of exposure. One day one german approached me and asked whether this is how everybody looked in africa. I asked him whether everybody in German was this mentally handicapped. I used the word 'mentally handicapped'. He was shocked! I dont know what he told them but the next day a german lady bought a drink for me in the same bar I met the german man. In that training I was the best when the result came out. I shifted my flight for one week to get to know the lady better. Now we are good friends. I am my own master. I was there in my own right and merit. Nobody had the ability or capacity to make me feel bad. Be confident and you will not feel bad about racism.

pansophist:
If you examine the formulation of the initial post, you will easily deduce that I did not describe it as racism, calling it racism is solely your own interpretation. I even limited my opprobrium to the airport workers only, not Poland.

spiralwedge:
pansophist, it is not entirely racism. it is islamophobia.

with the happenings in the world right now, that incident was islamophobia. Tell me about other forms of racism in Poland, I'm keenly interested.

I know those of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

RaptorX:
Blacks especially black Africans suffer from inferiority complex in their interactions with whites. Couple of years ago I flew into Lagos from Atlanta on Delta airlines and they misplaced my luggage, so I went to the airport the next day. The oyinbo delta agent at the airport was just ignoring all our questions about our luggage and ordering the Nigerian staffs around like dogs, I was so pissed I started yelling on the dude to produce my luggage or else. And my fellow passengers and the Naija staffs were looking at me like, this guy is brave o talking to oyinbo like that.

princetunex:
Racism is not new but I understand how you feel. You simply paid for the sins of our brothers who have tarnished the image of our color but I'm glad you didn't make any trouble n that's mature. Just move on bro

pansophist:
If you examine the formulation of the initial post, you will easily deduce that I did not describe it as racism, calling it racism is solely your own interpretation. I even limited my opprobrium to the airport workers only, not Poland.

pansophist:
I am not islam by belief or name, I dress urban and with a low hair cut. I even travelled with an EU document, and always calm. Besides, white people are muslims too. Religion is not base on skin colour, or even name.

spiralwedge:
you don't get my point. you will get that kind of experience anywhere in Europe, especially Eastern Europe, even in America. You are more likely to be an islamist terrorist than any other there. BTW, real terrorists don't travel with their real Islamic names.

I am not saying both racism and islamophobia are good. But I am saying these are commonplace at international borders and airports anywhere in the world, because of terrorism.

If you can not tell us instances of racism in Poland, then I'm out. This is because I face similar experience since 9/11 and before then... during IBB/Abacha eras when Naija was known for drug-trafficking, 419 and impersonation.

pansophist:
It was before my departure, I was patiently queuing about to board a flight from Katowice (Poland) to Eindhoven (Netherlands) at 07.15 am. While waiting, I was approached by a male employee who asked me about an unknown baggage found somewhere around the airport, I courteously replied that its not mine and I suggested that he should make a public announcement about it before passengers began to board the aircraft. When it was my turn to board, I approached the passenger service assistant and gave him my ID and mobile boarding pass but to my dismayal, he explicitly stated that I will not be allowed to board while asking me to wait at the corner for his boss to handle the situation. He wouldn’t listen to my subsequent plea as he rudely separated me from the curiously observing queuers, as I waited for the arrival of his supposed boss.

Three minutes later, the middle-aged boss arrived and as expected, collected my ID and interrogated me with the same question asked by the previous vicenarian employee, I repeatedly told him that I knew nothing about the baggage but he wouldn’t accept this as the truth. He further claimed that I was caught on camera dropping the bag and he would release the video to me if I keep denying, I was amazingly shocked at such magnitude of lie against me. I ask if I could see the video, wondering if I was mistaken for someone else, He agreed to show me but inferred that I wont be able to board the flight because after the nitty-gritty, the plane would be late on arrival, then its was dawm on me that this is getting serious. I replied angrily that if I miss my flight, I would sue the legal-person(s) involved. On hearing this, he immediately facilitated my boarding and directed me to the boarding gate. I asked again if I could see the video where I was caught dropping the baggage but he refused and reminded me that I am delaying the flight, in an attempt to diverge my pending questions. I was vehemently mortified. As I entered the plane from the front door, I noticed the fear and irritation gripping the passengers due to my chagrin. I approached to my assigned seat number, the passenger next to me wanted to be sure if I should be sitting close to her, as she was scared. I have never been publicly humiliated to this extent before. Throughout the whole trip, I was filled with so much anger, being victimized, guilt, and disregard. I wondered why I was handpicked and accorded such degrading treatment; I strongly believed it’s because of my phenotypically dark skin as I am the only ''non white'' on the flight, since no public announcement was made to inform if someone misplaced the baggage.

I have been a denizen in Poland and I have never experienced such degrading treatment throughout my time there. This treatment created a deep hole in my heart and brought to my awareness the reserved prejudice deeply rooted in the heart of the airport workers who ganged up and treated me so unfairly due to my dark skin. It is expected of public workers to be competent with customer’s relation skills, especially in airport serving passengers from all parts of the world. This experience has made me unnecessarily sensitive as I was made to tacitly understand I would have to prove my innocence if I’m unluckily present in any mix-up situation, that I will be assumed guilty by default with the burden of proving myself innocent resting on me, that this experience is but a mere trigger of an existing presupposition. The most painful part is that my feelings were completely ignored and at the very least of my expectation, no apologies issued to the aggrieved.

I am writing this letter without prejudice, and all I ask for is that the necessary authorities should equip its employees with customer relationship skills and method in reaching coherent conclusions without subjecting anyone to an inhumane treatment, and also as a deterrent from this happening to subsequent passengers.

spiralwedge:
pansophist, it is not entirely racism. it is islamophobia.

with the happenings in the world right now, that incident was islamophobia. Tell me about other forms of racism in Poland, I'm keenly interested.

I know those of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

ephi123:
I beg to disagree. This is a blatant case of racism and I really think you should take it up with the airline. If it is not racism, WHY was no one else queried about leaving a bag?
Even in Sports we see racism, it is just a shame honestly

ephi123:
I beg to disagree. This is a blatant case of racism and I really think you should take it up with the airline. If it is not racism, WHY was no one else queried about leaving a bag?
Even in Sports we see racism, it is just a shame honestly

jantavanta:
White people are treated as demi-gods in Nigeria because Nigerians worship White-People Gods on Fridays and Sundays.

euromilion:
This has nothing to do with yr brother or a tarnished image,a racist is a racist,Eastern Europeans are racists,however,not all polish are racist,but many are.

I once had some immigration officers come up to me in Frankfurt airport while sitting down waiting for my flight to the state,Thankfully I've just finished exams in criminal justice and immigration law,And I made this known to them that their behaviour wast noting but institutional rascism,by singling me out,out of thousands of people in the airport that day.

And guess what?.They rendered an apologies with immediate alacrity,and they claimed to have thought that I needed a help.it was a long story,but I tried to make it AQAP.

arabianights:
TRY YOUR BEST TO AVOID THOSE LISTED COUNTRIES (RUSSIAN,UKRAINE DONT KNOW OF BELARUS) .THEY ARE BASTARDS.

pansophist:
''I did not described it as racism'' doesnt necesarily mean ''its not racism''. I am cautious when writing on a public forum, I tend to present it in an open way and leave it to the interpretation of readers, as we all see things in a different ways. Its evident here if you stroll to some of the comments, some say its not racism but profiling etc.