HOW MY VIEW ON RACISM WAS TRANSFORMED BY A POWERFUL TESTIMONY.

Racism is always a sensitive topic no matter what ethnic or social background you come from. A race is defined as major division in humankind having a distinct physical characteristic, ethnic background. Therefore, racism can be defined as a preconceived opinion based on the belief in the superiority of a particular race over others.
As an African child learning about racism was hard and I think believing it was even harder for me to accept. Understanding the concept of discrimination based on the colour of skin texture of hair or even the height o f your body was hard. Call it a sheltered childhood if you want but that is the truth. In the societies I grew up in “white” people are seen as great people almost incapable of failure. They were seen as high society, and, in many ways, we can attribute this to the colonial mindset still in many of the African people.
But in the light of the recent protests it has shed a different light on the situation across the world in places where the biggest population is not of coloured skin. Because of these protests so many documentaries and stories are being re-aired and retold. many of the monuments set up around the world are scheduled or requested to be taken down because of the controversial story they tell. I was originally against the taking down of these monuments because they stand for a part of humankind’s history. But I had a very strong change of heart when I watched one of the documentaries that aired on Al Jazeera last month, “Ashes to Ashes by Renan Ozturk and Taylor Rees”(https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2020/07/ashes-ashes-lynchings-story-survival-200701203413427)
“Ashes to Ashes” is a film that is paying homage to Dr Shirley Jackson Whitaker and Mr. Winfred Rembert’s healing journey from the effects of the lynching of more than 4000 African Americans lynched during the era of Jim Crow from 1877 to the 1950’s. But I want to talk about the story of Mr. Winfred Rembert that is shared in the film. Winfred Rembert is a 74-year-old leather artist that grew up in the Southern states of the United States of America.

He is a huge fan of Star Wars and he is a big collector of the Star Wars action figures and toys. Mr Winfred Rembert is a passionate leather artist and is putting his life into art and he needs to make 50 pieces to tell his entire story by the time the video was filmed he had only 8. He is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and due to the current state of his mental health, as a result of 40 years of stress and traumatic experiences he has sleepless nights with only a few hours of sleep when on medication and none when not on medication. The amount of emotional energy that goes into the art pieces stirs up a lot of painful memories and emotion it may take a while to do each piece which slows the pace.
Mr. Winfred grew up on a cotton farm in the South and ran away from it at 14 years old. He then joined a civil rights movement at 14 years old and was imprisoned for a year without charges. He escaped from prison and was recaptured soon after, his captors drove him to a less populous part of the town and undressed him and hang him by the feet. He was beaten and one of the men threatened to castrate him and hung him afterwards. Fortunately, he was not because someone suggested that there are worse things they could do to him. He was beaten then untied later on …he then wrapped his shirt around his private parts. He was able to survive and later in life married and had children.
Listening to his story and seeing the tears run down his face I broke for him on the inside. I realised the impact that this had on so many people’s lives. For me it was just all history notes, close to no emotional attachment of the incidents we wrote about in history essays. I am glad that I was able to see this documentary and learn about the sad history of the black people in America. I am saddened though by the fact that some people want to cover up these stories, but these stories need to be heard and wrongs need to be rectified. The next generation needs to know the severity of the actions of our ancestors.
I hope you have been enlightened by this piece and in case there is any specific topic documentary or film that I can write about let me know in the comments below.
This link can take you to a more detailed piece about this gentleman's life and work.

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