The society I live in now is the furthest thing from perfect, but I would suffocate my conscience if I didn’t say that the one I migrated from was very toxic. Sometimes, until you remove yourself from an environment that you can reflect on, compare, and question. The way we unconsciously marinate our souls in the chaos has become a symptom of the unchecked backdrop of our racial trauma.
I, like many people, felt rage, disgust and sadness when I saw Courtney Douglas’s painting displaying obscene racial stereotypes. He played into the black single mother trope, the black family clarity and classism (the ungrateful poor). In fact, the hurt made itself worse with a distressing race incident that I had experienced almost a year ago and I had a complete day where I emotionally spiked.
Courtney subsequently changed the painting and apologized for the first version of it. Personally, I have chosen to accept Courtney’s apology because Courtney like me and many of us have absorbed and internalized the stereotypes that have been hammered into our psyche. Has my rage gone even though I’ve accepted it? Absolutely not, and it will take a while before it simmer.