Covid-19 and the Racism Nexus

I had an experience today that widened my perspective on racism and the role of education in correcting the ugly thinking pattern underlying racism.

Some of my high school students started a bedlam while teachers were in a seminar. Shiuts of “Corona Virus” took over the whole place. We rushed out to see what was wrong only to find that a certain Asian salesman (probably Lebanese or Iranian) had come to sell his wares as usual. Unfortunately, the students were almost surrounding him, screaming at him and I suspected that any remonstration from the man would have set off real chaos (God forbid). We immediately reprimanded the kids and promptly apologised to the man and his Nigerian partner.

The crux of this gist is how it made me feel about the few experiences of racism during my brief visits to foreign countries. More so, when we read reports of racial abuse all around. Don’t the abusers feel justified because of the education they have received and the different narratives which consolidates their false sense of superiority, innocence and purity vis-a-vis the victim’s inferiority, sinfulness and guilt?

It struck me really hard that we Africans have concentrated too much on the evils of racism based on a narrative that presents the white as the offenders and the black as victim. We seem to have neglected to teach them that racism can go either way and it’s wrong in either circumstance.

Now that Covid-19 is aboard and some super powers are already selling the narrative that it is the fault of the Chinese – an unfortunate idea, shouldn’t we seize this opportunity to re-evaluate our philosophy about the other and their problems which often become the bases of discrimination and racism?

Plagues can start anywhere and THIS is not the fault of the Chinese.

Olushola OYADIJI