The depth of dehumanization of the black African race is such that even in pain, suffering and inner destruction, black Africans and their descendants have been conditioned by their peers, family and society to surpass their own fortresses in order to fit in a model of success which is not even relatable to them. The idea of success in the black mind, whether North American or Western European, always refers to or has to involve a proximity to whiteness in any form. Even the so-called role models presented to the black Americans (degenerate entertainers such as Jay-Z, Beyoncé who promote filthy values to dumb down their own group) are considered examples for having amassed a certain amount of money throughout their career.
Despite the efforts made by the West to promote images of people of color deemed successful, Western Blacks can not fill in their inner void which has plagued them for so long.
These black groups were taught, from a very young age, that success meant being something other, surpassing one’s self in order to please and receive the approbation of the white dominant entity. For these Blacks, success can not come from within, but has to be given from the white outsiders.
If society wants to promote the idea of assimilation in order to tone down the natural danger, hence the black African essence deemed threatening to the order of white society, black families themselves promote this constant annihilation of their black selves in order to achieve success.
The 2019 Californian law which banned discrimination based on someone’s hair style was not perceived as revolutionary enough. This ban went on to show how black women, especially, had not only been conditioned to repress themselves, but to transform their most natural parts of selves deemed too unfit for the professional white world. This repression is a psychological torture which keeps nourishing the policy of self-hatred in the mind of unhealed, and traumatized Black Westerners.
Even if the most pro-black families want to educate their children in taking pride in their roots, these same pro-black families remain truly affected and crushed by the consequences of history.
For many, the only way of success for black people is in the massive accumulation of wealth. By earning more than average, black people do not have a rational vision of themselves, but automatically embrace the idea of inferiority. They do not follow any path which suits them but rather face an irrational amount of stress which leads to a constant state of dissociation of their selves. The constant pressure imposed upon Black Westerners is not only unreal, but also blocks any of them from enjoying the benefits of individualism. Hence, the ability of following one’s personal destiny according to their tastes, identity, spiritual path, and desires.
The constant obsession with wealth accumulation is another form of whitewashing. Indeed, through the wealth acquired, one would thus be perceived as a hard worker, it is true, but this money would make them “others”, supra-Blacks, who would greatly differ from the rest of the Black Westerners who remained at the bottom.
Unfortunately, this wealth accumulation would even be better if preceded by college degrees. Education gives one prestige and elevates.
Whether through education or through the accumulation of wealth, these two conditions are processes of whitewashing whose aim is to annihilate any form of blackness in order to fit in the white mold of success.
The world of academic regroups all the future thinkers of the world. Education is politics, hence one of the many spaces where the reputation of an entire nation relies upon. The high costs of fees in American and in some Western European universities highlight the elitist structures of the institutions. Due to the high cost of tuition fees, many black and brown children will not have the same possibility to access the higher spheres.
Still, as technology develops at a fast rate, one realises that new professions are also, slowly emerging. Though Steve Jobs was not a black man who came from the ghetto, the latter never obtained any college degree at all. This fact did not prevent him from revolutionizing the world of technology. Also, with the sudden rise of improbable influencers or social media figures who have succeeded in creating empires, generating millions, one realizes that the idea of traditional success promoted in the 1950s is being challenged.
Unlike seventy years ago, individuals no longer have to keep the same job for the rest of their lives. With technology came fluidity, change and constant adaptation, evolution. The static world of the past will not be maintained in the years to come.
Though, if some individuals were well invested enough by their parents to understand such reality, and even if the fields of medecine, sciences will remain at the top, black Westerners are way too late and have a hard time understanding the political and economic challenges ahead of them.
To them, the same traditional ideas are being presented by their own parents who still believe in the old idea of success. Amassing wealth and being educated will not only make their children respected to the eyes of the Whites, but also be a sign of their success as parents through that whitewashing process. Unfortunately, since technology can not be racialized, since it is a science which can be exploited by anybody possessing the capacity of understanding its full functions, black Westerners could easily use it to their benefits in order to create their own niche and find unusual and revolutionary ways to socially, financially succeed, without compromising their identity.
Thanks to social media, African painters from the continent, black Westerners in arts and crafts found a way to introduce their work to the world, selling their paintings, creations through the constant expansion of their personal community of fans.
In reality, though black families are aware of the rise of technology no one can escape from, they remain attached to this improbable traditional scheme of success which was never built or made for them, but rather favored for wealthy Whites.
In the fight for anti-colonialism, the few black academics who have entered the cherished fields of education have been facing a great challenge: at which point will they eventually abandon their initial anti-colonial thoughts to, eventually, turn into some egotistical monsters?
Some such as Olivette Otele, a British-Cameroonian historian and researcher were intelligent enough to exploit their personal knowledge with the intention of either fighting against Eurocentrism, and thus the erasure of Africans in history, or to shed light on periods of history which have remained occulted over the past centuries.
The existence of Olivette Otele is more than important in the world of academic since Africans need to challenge the false ideas of Euro domination spread by white historians, since history is the scientific branch which maintains the West in power as it serves the manipulation of the masses.
The principal agenda of academia is to preserve and protect Western institutions and support the false idea that the West is the center of the world, the center of creation without which, the world would clearly disappear. It is a place of savoir, next.
In that sense, egos and names will be more important than the research and the paper themselves.
The black academics who enter the sphere of education and college often have a purpose of freeing their own people from oppression, until they begin to become as elitist as any other white fellow from the university where they work.
College is not a place of equality but a space where the dysfunctional social hierarchy is aimed to be preserved at all costs. It is through the constant separation between the social castes that the elite remains elevated, and this is no secret.
The black academics will never give back to the people they want to free from oppression, since they have been conditioned to believe that the approbation of the white gaze, especially when it comes to success, will nurture their ego and thus, secure them a position of elevation in the sphere where Blacks are supposed to be despised.
For this reason, black academicians rarely give back to the people they vowed to help.
If they choose to express their anti-colonial views too freely, they would be afraid of the repercussions in the loss of their privileges. Often, the black academics who succeed simply used the anti-colonial fight as a performative form of expression. It is in the rise of their ego, that they find their strength.
It is not rare to then see most academics, whether brown or/and black, organize conferences to debate, exchange and speak about social issues related to their communities. Often, these debates are not followed by actions at all, since the intervenants simply love to hear themselves talk.
This new black elitist educated branch will regroup, evolve with one another, as if suspended from time and disconnected from reality. The initial anti-colonial fight will simply turn into arrogant discussions which will either take place in gentrified spaces or in universities, where the work of Fanon will be re-explored, without any actions were taken.
The members of this new black intelligentsia and intellectual elite, will block any new profile from emerging, especially if the new individual would want to take actions. As soon as they tasted elitism, and thus whiteness, the suffering of the black masses will no longer exist.
The new black and brown intellectuals come from such a place of low self-esteem that the title they carry seems to matter the most. Their ideas are redundant, flat as they do not propose anything new. Often, when angry, the anger stems from their inability to reach the higher white spheres they wish they would belong to, so as to advance their career even more.
Pseudo anti-colonial thinkers and academics are formated colonial agents chosen as members of the controlled opposition whose main goal is to make sure, that nothing will ever change.
These same black and brown academics who want to be embraced by their white superiors, will also be used by the white institutions, whose members truly hate the Blacks, to become, somehow, the black and brown faces of white imperialism. These same educated Blacks will not only poisoined the minds of their black masses, but they will also be used as agents of destruction for their own.
The profile of Malcolm X remains one of the most important we have had in recent years. Born Malcolm Little, the leader knew poverty, street gangsterism, prison, before educating himself, reading, forming himself and becoming the legendary man he turned out to be. The politician revealed, through his own spiritual revolution, that the process of college does not always guarantee stability, social elevation and higher respect. One does not need to reach the higher spheres of education in order to have access to education. If Malcolm X managed to evolve without the elitist approach of education, many more black and brown people could, through the domination of technology, expand their knowledge, become new researches, historians, as long as they learn about the methodology and organization in how to structure ideas, and found data.
But this democratization of knowledge through technology would not only prevent the white elite from keeping knowledge to themselves, but if such thing would happen, the black minions of academic would see their efforts be annihilated for good, especially when their main idea is to become the new Whites who dominate their black counterparts. Addicted to their social status through the college degrees earned, the mental elevation of a child of a ghetto who found a desire to educate himself through books found in local shops would disturb the black intellectual.
Written by Victoria “VKY” Kabeya. All Rights Reserved, 2023.
VKY 