Being black and proud... what we stand for

I have been holding off blogging on this, until today, ‘cos I wanted to see what will happen at the New Hampshire today. My husband and I woke up at the early hours of this morning, to hear the results and Hilary Clinton won the New Hampshire, by 3%, against Obama

Yes people, it is all about Obama, our own 1st generation African American. He is mixed race, with a Kenyan father and an American white mother, which still makes him a black man (I wonder why). I am so excited that he has come this far and the fact that he represents what myself and every other 1st generation African American/British, living in the US/UK or any part of the West aspires for.

Obama represents all the goodness of being African is all about. He represents to me, what I can become, in the midst of all the racial discrimination and prejudice. He represents the good forces of being black in this part of the world, outside for rap music, black on black youth killings in the UK, racial riots in France, discrimination in Holland, prejudice in Norway etc. He represents the “can do attitude” and “never say die” attitude of Africans and Black people.

Weather he wins the democratic nomination, to run for the US presidency or not, he is a winner in my own eyes. He is why I am happy to be black and proud.

I saw him with his proud black wife and beautiful two daughters and all I could think about is shame to all the Nigerian men that keep having marital affairs, shame to them that think their woman is not good enough, pretty enough. Shame to them that are not happy with “female children”, shame to them that feel incomplete without a son.

Shame to the governors, political leaders, presidents (past and present), public office holders that keep stealing money and laundering our resources.

I am proud of Obama, he is a president in my own eyes!


My driving lessons
I have been driving lessons for 2-3 years now, and boy, I am not passing this test oh! Anyway, I recently changed my instructor and his guy is pretty good and always nagging me about what I am doing wrong… bless him. A few lessons ago, we got into this discussions about black people being bad drivers and pedestrians. He calls blacks “coloured”. I never thought I would ever meet anyone refer to blacks as coloured. Don’t get me wrong the guy is not racist; he is just ignorant…which is not an excuse, but I just find him very intriguing and I knew aggression was not the way to change his thinking. I had to understand where he was coming from and find a way to educate him. Also, for my own education, I wanted to understand his thinking.

Back to my story, the conversation with him, started a few weeks ago and I have been bidding my time, until this afternoon’s lesson; when I started showing examples of bad non- black drivers and why generalising was wrong, ‘cos you end up boxing people up. I told him to stop saying “coloured” ‘cos it was derogatory (I think). I also told him that the area we were driving was a relatively poor area, low incomers and thus will be the case for the black and white living there. I told him that I found people in this area rude, especially the “whites”, but I would be incorrect to say all “whites” are rude. Anyway, he kept saying “this is what I see”, “this is my own experience “then I told him that just ‘cos it was his own experience did not mean his conclusions were right. More than anything else, he is responsible for what he says and he should be mindful of the effect or actions of what he says. Anyway, the guy is an instructor, little or no education and his perception of blacks is what the systems, media and his environment tells him.

I have lessons with him tomorrow, so I am going to tell him about Barrack Obama! I also want to show him that I am a black and proud woman and I stand for all that is good about being Black. I plan to pass my test and drive safely.