Define Blackness Then Reparations

Identify who's black, then reparations. 

What do we discuss at home during the holidays, besides avoiding parents with their blackmail? Talk to your brother. I’m going to die tomorrow before he does the right thing.

Usual tactics to force us to do things that will be detrimental to our mental and financial well-being. I suppose we’ll run away from mum and dad, sit in the garage or backyard and talk about reparations. Correction. I’ll pretend to be room noise and eavesdrop on African Americans talking about the pro’s and con’s. I’m an outsider, so I’m sorry if I offend you. Some people prefer to be called black Americans.

I never knew that rooms have their own noise. My photography professor at Columbia taught me about it. He was an African American. I’m repeating it because that’s how he identified himself. The advantage of being room noise, is that I will eavesdrop on identity. Identity must be established before reparations are disbursed. Right?

It was a thorny issue way back when, judging from actresses used in old films. Identity was defined as ‘mixed’ at some point. Now it’s biracial. From where I’m hiding in the room noise, it seems that with the majority of black people, there’s no debate. Somebody enters the room and everybody knows they are black. Some policemen see a black person and shoot to kill.

The internet confuses me even more because there is a narrative that black people were in America before indigenous people like the Lakota, Dene, Dakota etc. How? Apparently, it is recorded in diaries of European invaders. There’s a simple reason for that. They were white and ‘discovered’ America. They saw something they’ve never seen before, black people. But, indigenous people did not regard themselves as black, they were owners of the land with languages, religion, science, culture and art. Therefore, it is sad that some black people in America find their hair, lips, nose and body structure so repulsive, they push theories that dispossess indigenous First Nations of Canada and the U.S.

Identity before reparations. Maybe that has been decided already, I don’t know. All I know is that the race cannot afford another issue for division and name calling. We don’t have anybody else except ourselves.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger