A false sense of accomplishment
Walking back from Benmore after lunch today, I saw the most horrifying thing
in my life. Just after the grayston/west intersection there was a fully grown
man, bent over the side of an ornamental fountain, lapping water up from it like
a dog.
I swear it was like I was watching a movie. It was just flabberghasting the way people were smiling at me when i gasped and gaped in frantic disbelief. How can a man be left to carry himself like an animal, in a suburb of such great wealth?
As a black person, the thing that disgusted me the most is the way in which other black people seem to have internalised this creulty towards their kind. It broke my heart that I was looked at as a hero by passersby when I went up to my brother and gave him R20, just so that he would not have to shame himself like that in his desparation.
When I approached the gentleman and explained to him that the water he was drinking was not clean, he was embarrased for himself. He was not high off of anything, he was not intoxicated or inebriated, he was just a lucid black man in a desparate situation.
I am sharing this story in the hopes that all my black brothers and sisters will wake up from this false sense of accomplishment that lulls them into thinking that another black persons suffering does not affect them.
When I saw that poor gentleman literally lapping water up like an animal, I am so blessed that in my head and heart it hit home. I realised that that is not just some random black beggar guy, its my brother, my uncle, my cousin, my son.
Please let us wake up and never let these things go by unaddressed.
This is just the plea of an African child, begging her family members to protect, preserve and love one another fiercely, because we are all we got!
Aluta Continua!
I swear it was like I was watching a movie. It was just flabberghasting the way people were smiling at me when i gasped and gaped in frantic disbelief. How can a man be left to carry himself like an animal, in a suburb of such great wealth?
As a black person, the thing that disgusted me the most is the way in which other black people seem to have internalised this creulty towards their kind. It broke my heart that I was looked at as a hero by passersby when I went up to my brother and gave him R20, just so that he would not have to shame himself like that in his desparation.
Why is it okay for black people to live like this?
When I approached the gentleman and explained to him that the water he was drinking was not clean, he was embarrased for himself. He was not high off of anything, he was not intoxicated or inebriated, he was just a lucid black man in a desparate situation.
I am sharing this story in the hopes that all my black brothers and sisters will wake up from this false sense of accomplishment that lulls them into thinking that another black persons suffering does not affect them.
When I saw that poor gentleman literally lapping water up like an animal, I am so blessed that in my head and heart it hit home. I realised that that is not just some random black beggar guy, its my brother, my uncle, my cousin, my son.
Please let us wake up and never let these things go by unaddressed.
This is just the plea of an African child, begging her family members to protect, preserve and love one another fiercely, because we are all we got!
Aluta Continua!
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