Paradigm

Paradigm

Kola Soremekun

I am a Nigerian; I grew up in Lagos State, which is arguably the most populated city in West Africa. In the middle of diversity, there I am, trying to figure out what is right from wrong, trying to know who is friendly and who is not friendly, trying to understand my language, religion and tradition. Also trying to decide which peer group I belong to.   In Nigeria, there are three major ethnic groups which are; Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. The Hausas are large in terms of population and geographical land mass; they fill up Northern Nigeria down to the middle belt. The Yorubas are settled in Western Nigeria and the Igbos cover Eastern and Southern Nigeria.

These three major ethnic groups coexist but there’s a silent struggle, like a time bomb waiting to explode unless diffused. Now the issue here is not because of color (whether white or black) we are all blacks in this great country but there’s barrier in language, and religion. Oh well this article is not about my beautiful country. This article is more concerned with the ongoing struggle between the people of colour and the whites in the world.

The transatlantic slave trade which began in the 15^th century has ensured that people of colour are in diaspora in huge numbers in different parts of the world, the search for greener pastures has also enhanced this course. The United States will soon have no clear racial or ethnic majority. This demographic shift offers many benefits to American society, such as expanding the labour force as the Baby Boomer generation retires. In the next few decades, most of the growth in the American Workforce will come from the Latinos and Asian communities, which will continue to grow more quickly than the non-Hispanic white population (Center for American Progress). By 2014, the majority of the U.S population will be people of colour. According to analysis of Bureau of the Census projection, by 2044, the United States will have no clear racial or ethnic majority. According to new projections, Whites will make up 49.7% of the population, followed by Latinos at 25 percent, African Americans at 12.7% and Asians at 7.9% of the population will identify as multiracial.

With the present mortality and immigration rate, the numbers of non-whites might sky rocket sooner than expected and this will result into the reduction of the whites in different parts of the world. This is where the issue of white supremacists comes in play.

White supremacy is a racist ideology based upon the belief that white people are superior in many ways to people of other race and that therefore white people should be dominant over other races. This idea is flawed because the whites brought this issue on themselves with there own hands through the slave trade. They went about taking non-whites from their ancestral lands and took them as slaves to work on farmlands. The non-whites didn’t go voluntarily but there were forced, those who refused were killed. Now the slave trade is no more and the people of colour have established themselves in the lands of the whites, they are now educated, brilliant and have a huge population so therefore they pose a threat.

Now you want to exact total domination after you have indirectly empowered people of other races? Total domination can never be achieved again. Total domination might have been possible if the people of other races have been left alone in their ancestral lands. Total domination might have been possible if countries don’t have relations with each other.

The fight between the whites and the non-whites is just a case of different entities fighting for the power to be in control. Peace and understanding should be preached, United Nations is doing a great deal of work to stop this ongoing issue and they’ve had substantial success but the issue of racism is an ideology just like terrorism, racism can not be stopped, its an ideology that results into an act. As long as people speak different languages, people have different cultures and different ways of life then racism will always and forever be an issue.

So the true question is, can peace be achieved?