White Nigerian.

This discussion is an important one to have despite me not having access to the tweet this piece was inspired from. That’s my mishap and I will be more proactive the next time. The woman photo’d above made statements denouncing her blackness and stripping herself of her Nigerian heritage. Some of my fellow “hotepians” took offense to her comments, here are my thoughts.

Okay so I don’t think the comment is as bad as some people are making it out to be, but it just might be. The last thing I want to do is down play or clown this sista’s experience. For those who are, you can feel however you want, but how about looking at it from this angle (her angle)(maybe).

She’s Denouncing White Supremacy.

When you think about it, the categorization of “black” was created by “the man” so she’s not wrong. She’s also not wrong about the the creation of Nigeria. From this viewpoint I see a sista who is choosing to identify with her roots. Her deepest roots.

White Devil’s Advocate.

I usually don’t like playing devil’s advocate but the devil is calling me. I answered the call and this is what he/she/they said to me. “Igbo Lady is NOT denouncing white supremacy. What she’s doing is erasing her blackness by identifying with an unknown heritage.” WHOA! The devil said a lot. Identifying with the Igbo race to escape from blackness… damn.

Whatever this Queen is saying with her statements, I think there’s two disconnects going on that should not be happening. I think people who are chastising this woman are being a bit too hard on her. As I stated before, she is onto something with her statement and I think her denouncing all ties to white supremacy is admirable and bold. The second disconnect happening here is her with reality. Despite what we call ourselves or how we identify racism will still be present. Still black. Still nigga. That’s not to say we should allow white supremacy to categorize us. White supremacy has has done more than enough to us when it comes to placing us in boxes. What I’m saying is identifying yourself is a form of self love and self love is a form of sweet revenge. Just don’t loose touch of reality. Whether you identify with your nucleus, your root(s) or your “white name,” reality is still a thing and in reality, sadly there is racism.