Thought Picnic: The stereotype of a hypersexual black man persists

Just trying to help

The first thing that came to mind was whether I had just missed an Emmett Till moment, though the comparison is a bit too severe; England has never been the American South of the 1950s, but some stereotypes are so ingrained that people act on them before reality and modernity can adjust their thinking.

I was walking home when I saw two ladies seemingly in a rush, going in one direction and then the opposite, wondering aloud if they were headed the right way. As I overheard them, and being quite familiar with the area, I thought I could help, so I inquired about which direction they wanted to go.

As I looked back, a man approached me and asked what I was looking at. His aggression was met with equal disdain. "What is your problem?" I retorted. He claimed that I was the problem, to which I suggested he should go home and not look for trouble because I had no time for crazy people.

The stereotypes betraying us

He blurted out, “That’s my wife you are looking at.” A strapping (I guess in the dark, appearances can be deceptive) black man, and I am hardly that, going after and ogling a white woman with rampant sexual desire?

Maybe if I could whistle, but the ladies did not even deserve an anachronistic catcall, but let’s not disparage the innocent. It did look like an Emmett Till moment, as a white man had just suggested I had disrespected his wife by looking lustfully at her.

Where did this kind of thinking emerge from, and how could it even be expressed so strongly in Manchester of 2025? The situation was about to escalate totally out of control if I did not have a response or chose to walk away, which was the wise choice.

Easing the built-up tension

I replied, “I am a gay man, I am not interested in your wife; I was only asking if I could help.” He showed character; immediately he offered a profuse apology, saying he was very sorry for making a wrong assumption. His wife joined him, and they both pleaded for being unnecessarily defensive; they asked for my name and introduced themselves.

We shook hands as they explained they were out looking for their friend, who they thought was lost. They were a bit distressed about it and did not know what to do. I gave them some encouragement and wished them well as we parted ways. I was just a block away from home.

The present is the past

On reflection, I thought about how suspicion and the exchange of coarse words could have led to a fracas and needlessly so. How we are informed by the stereotypes of others until we seek to learn more about their story out of interest and engagement rather than an initial dislike based on falsehoods.

How in the UK, we are fortunate that even the irrational is contained in the exchange of words before it becomes physical, hurtful, and sometimes fatal.

Then, the basic willingness to hear the other out and listen can diffuse the most tense (as I use British rather than American English, "most tense" is the most appropriate superlative for tense, rather than "tensest" in American English) situations; someone had to be ready to play the pipes of peace before we come within the sound of the drums of war.

It was both an unsettling and teachable moment. We might have come a long way, but that basic animal instinct is always ready to impose itself on our unsteady coexistence.

Rise with your hopes or fall with your fears

Guard your ears, till your heart

Our fears can so limit our ability to thrive, some fears fed by a passing comment in our past that takes root and grows into a humongous impediment to progress and success. The caution we must exercise in who we lend our ears to is one of eternal vigilance, for the grounds in which seeds can grow in our lives, are more fertile than we ever realise.

Words from the mouths of our parents triggering involuntary responses that determine the course of our lives and can make a difference in a lifetime, you wonder, how do you escape the clutches of what you have taken to heart? There are damaging consequences, from people of considerable influence that you can still hear their voices decades long after you have forgotten who or what they look like.

We can be different

We should not however concentrate on the negative, there are other inputs that engender the amazingly productive, that word of kindness, of encouragement, of hope, of prayer, of beauty, of praise and the good of our humanity, lighting up a path for us to travel, rescuing us from danger, infirmity, or calamity, bringing a sense of determination that girds us and strengthens us that we have no choice but to win. Those voices are begging to be heard but we are too attuned to the contrary.

As individuals, we fight our uniquely arranged battles, but when we enter into partnerships where our fortunes are pooled, we can rise with our partners or sink with them because of the baggage that burdens our inability to either live beyond our fears or the grip of the impending defeat sowed by experiences or words we have heard before.

Imagine where you can be

The greater disaster is not to see the newness in life that gives you hope against all situations to write a better story and create a worthy narrative of your life beyond the fears and low expectations of others who stole our power to thrive with their selfish perspective of what your life might be if it turned out different and successful.

If I am saddened, it is with those who never tried to dream of the extraordinary and when given the opportunity take off from the ground, rise to have the wind beneath their wings to soar with the eagles. It is possible, only if we uproot the forests of fruitless trees that took hold clouding the warmth of the sun with the fear of a future we do not know. Fears based on broad stereotypes when they should have based on the uniqueness of the individual.

Even more, the pity is you and your partner are left down in the dumps in an unproductive life just because fear robbed you of the spirit of hope and the experience of better things that you could ever have imagined in your wildest dreams.

Lazy stereotypes lashing the eye

Making lazy choices

When I finally decided to exit my apartment for some domestic shopping, I had the choice of visiting one of two stores in the same store chain, miles diametrically apart from each other with the possibility, one might not have what I needed. I left it to the chance of which mode of transport came first, it happened to be the bus before I got as far as the tram station.

Meanwhile, one annoying feature of the construction boom in Manchester is the council-supported allowance for builders to cordon off complete side streets or pavements with as much as one lane on the street as a safety buffer in some cases. That was a recent obstruction implemented on my way, just as I seethe about the lane which has been lost from my street for over two years.

I think it is more about giving the companies opportunities to utilise their plots fully without losing any space to the construction process. It is in my view a form of corruption that unnecessarily inconveniences the public without compensation or consequence.

Power to a stereotype

Having boarded the bus, as I got off, I had to help a couple on before the bus rode off without them, and then I crossed the road to my intended shop. Having obtained the goods and foodstuffs I wanted, I walked up the road looking for CR2032 batteries for my weighing scales.

I chanced on a mobile phone services shop where on requesting the batteries, I was asked if I needed them for diabetes. Now, I would not know what battery-operated device diabetics use, much I did not want to take offence as to why the shopkeeper reached that conclusion, out of stereotype or just in the quest to be helpful.

Yet, it is something to consider for diabetes along with hypertension are silent killers in our community. The need to care for our health at most times is abandoned for the expedient. There is much we can do with diet, exercise and moderation to control and mitigate these conditions that we ignore for too long until medical science can do little to ameliorate.

Enduring eyelash torture

I have been fortunate, despite my numerous health challenges, and I can do more in terms of exercise to keep fit. I keep tabs on both my weight and blood pressure at home, my biannual check-ups monitor other indicators that I try to understand the trends of, just in case I need to make radical changes to my lifestyle for corrective purposes.

As I left the shop, the wind blowing in my face must have detached a loose eyelash that got into my eye. In these times of the Coronavirus, you cannot be too careful, I had to tortuously resist the urge to touch my eyes until I had returned home and washed my hands. For all the surfaces and things, I had touched from the bus, the shopping basket, the foodstuffs, the doors and so on, it was hard but necessary. The relief of removing the speck in my eye eventually, could not be celebrated enough.

Care and carefulness have become the instructors of our daily experiences for health, keeping healthy and staying well.

Thought Picnic: Facing the stereotypes of being black and dealing drugs

We will not shrink

Generally, one is rarely inspired to write about this topic, but there comes a time when something does need to be said, and my blog is a forum for such when it matters.

As a minority of many facets in living and thankfully thriving within a majority of diversity, the greatest triumph of the person is to be comfortable in one’s own skin when met with the various indignities that are doled out by the ignorant and those who should know better either at work or at play.

The indignities are many

The fine line between being patronised and being belittled in the corny device of faint praise or acknowledgement is constantly being crossed and with great restraint and the discipline that comes with rearing and bearing, one would bat off, ignore or challenge the infraction to ensure that such unhealthy encounters do not become the norm.

Earlier this evening, I was met with such an encounter from a stranger who no doubt had grown his knowledge of people like me from some odious script or noxious experience that I cannot care to be concerned about.

It is without doubt that one along with many like me; and I mean black men, in this case, have suffered such indignities and disrespect that demands a response in rage, but elicits the riposte of a polite put down, if a monosyllabic retort will not do the job as efficiently as one would desire.

Nonsensical stereotyping

By enquiry, I received a message with the subject heading, ‘Busy?’, the body of the letter read thus;

“Hi, weird question. I really wanna get some weed tonight. Can you help me babe? Xx”

Let us not belabour ourselves with the many issues with address and import, the context was layered on like a slice of toast so heavily buttered, its falling from any height would create an oily splatter and there could only be one response and I quote it below:

“Hello,
Just because I am a black man does not mean I do drugs, deal drugs or know a dealer.
I am a highly placed professional and I have had enough of this nonsensical stereotyping from the drug-addled lot that have no gumption beyond seeking the pleasure of illicit highs.
I have seriously restrained myself from the needed use of an expletive to tell you off totally.
Regards.”

Just too many times already

Now, you may ask, what would elicit this kind of response and the answer is in a long history of encounters of a similar kind. A stranger sidles up to me in some public place or writes to me in some social forum and for some reason or the other which I dare say can only be borne of some stereotype or the atrocity racial profiling, asks if I have drugs or know a drug dealer.

The misfortune if that is what one could generously call it is my life and many others I know are not true to that stereotype or that profile. We have through many determined and fortunate turns in life lived and enjoyed privileges that is the substance of the dreams of others. Not that we have to wear such luck around our necks and rattle those blessings with the aplomb of the arriviste; understated remains the quiet class of discretion.

It must stop

However, after a holiday in Spain, where for almost the umpteenth time, one was unwittingly besmirched with the odium of trading in illicit and illegal substances, the usual silence now demands a more forceful response.

Yes, we are black, no we do not use drugs, we do not have drug dealers as friends and honestly, stop asking a black person anywhere whether they can acquire drugs for you. The simple inquiry for your inordinate pleasure is to the other person, a badly served slight and insult, we would overlook such abuse no more.

South Africa: Chance encounters of the uncouth kind

Chance encounters

As a lone traveller and guest in a hotel, I would normally go down to the restaurant with some reading material, usually a magazine. However, I might be fortunate enough to meet another guest and strike up a conversation.

However, at breakfast yesterday morning, having placed my magazine on a table and gone to make tea, another guest took up the table to the right of mine, seeing the magazine, picked it up, had a brief look and put it back.

Not a likeable person

When I returned to my table, I said hello and before we could commence a conversation, an acquaintance of his passed by and they disputed about some matter that required the other person send him an email since the day before which he did not and the exchange degenerated into belittling him and calling the other man ‘full of shit’.

From there, he descended to stereotyping black people as unreasonable and unreliable, that he had never met a black man that either delivered or kept his word. Addressing me, he asked why black men were always like this.

I answered, back saying he should expand his circle of acquaintances because my job is primarily based on delivering on projects apart from the fact that I always keep to time. I then attempted to educate him on cultural differences between the West and other places where time is based on season and convenience rather than on strict adherence to the hour and minute hands of the clock.

Tempering bad sentiment

He should know by doing business in Africa, the cultural differences and adapt to it. At which point he said, he knew two black people who were quite impressive in their attitude to agreements and time before letting on that he had a meeting with a number of white people that should have started hours ago, but they had not yet arrived. I guess that just affirmed the point I made earlier about the issue of the cultural issues of adherence to agreements and time.

The conversation moved on to other things as he observed that I had a Wiko phone which was a competitor to a phone that he had exclusive rights to distribute in South Africa. He was garrulous and in many ways uncouth, the kind of Englishman that irritates abroad with a sense of superiority that needs to be challenged.

A working class oaf pretending to standards and class abroad when at home the only things he might have plenty of will be the gift of the garb, money and the same shit he said black people have. When he learnt I am English too, he toned down his nonsense, I was saved much of additional tripe when another of his ilk appeared and their banter assume a tone best left out of hearing.

They disparage in packs

Later on, I went out socialising in some drearily dark scary part of Johannesburg that I doubt I will return to again. My arranged taxi ride back to my hotel was not available, so the club recommended an alternative service.

As I got my jacket, a group of four men arrived and the mouthiest of the lot saw me and made a rather disparaging remark about me in a language, they all thought I did not understand.

They continued in their banter of sighting people and finding something uncomplimentary to say about them as I watched and smiled before I said in that same language they thought I did not speak that ‘I have travelled the whole world and now I have come to meet Yoruba folk here.’

The shock and horror of realising that their bad attitude was observed and understood was interesting to watch as they made to apologise. It did not matter, I have seen this kind of behaviour many times before amongst the Yoruba and this might be because I do understand the language, and it might well be prevalent in any other ethnic group that believes they cannot be overhead or understood.

There’s always a better way

Yet, the other prejudicial part of this kind of behaviour is a kind of prissy superiority complex that thrives of disparaging and belittling others in order to feel good within oneself. It suggests a low self-esteem with a tendency to bullying others if the opportunity arises.

Genuinely, self-assured people with confidence rarely have the time to belittle others when more can be gained by helping others be better expressions of themselves. Even if there is much opportunity to insult or abuse, there is a better path if one can find encourage, praise and good advice to give.

However, in the two cases above, entrenched preconceptions close the mind to new experiences, stereotypes colour the view and deny the person the wholesome experience of seeing people as uniquely individual even if they easily fit into a group.

In South Africa, many of these elements of prejudice and cultural adjustment show, people lazily belong to group and class, then someone with a completely different cultural outlook and perspective upsets the accepted norms by not subscribing to the stereotype. It can make for interesting conversation and I have had a few of those.

Decade Blogs - 'Seyi Shimoshi - On Faith, Fiction and Friendship

Decade Blogs

Shimoshi as we know him has one of those baby-faced facades that belie a propensity for mischief, that permanent smiling face leaves me shaking my head always.

Yet, witty, humorous and fun to engage with, an engineer of things, thoughts and words, whilst we have never met, I feel quite honoured knowing him in the virtual world and hope to meet him someday.

His contribution to my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging is on how we cultivate friendships that transcends beliefs, stereotypes and caricatures to embrace our greater humanity.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

Besides this, I remember when someone expressed surprise at two Nigerians with Yoruba parentage conversing in Hausa on Twitter, that was Shimoshi and I chatting, and yes, I am impressed with multilingual Nigerians, they see a bigger place than where they are from.

‘Seyi Shimoshi blogs at www.shimoshi1.wordpress.com and he tweets as @shimoshi1. Thank you for this excellent piece.

Here is Faith, Fiction and Friendship

I have been lost for a topic to talk about ever since Uncle Akin made a request that I should put a post on his blog to mark his decade of blogging. It is not because there is nothing really to write. No, he gave me a carte blanche to talk about whatever catches my fancy, but I struggled to get a topic I could feel comfortable with and that we both share interesting views.

I settled for Faith, Fiction and Friendship. I hope you find it a worthwhile reading. If you do you, you owe Uncle Forakin a great deal of gratitude. He was the first who made me own a blog and made me believe that I could do it irrespective of my professional background and leaning. Here is to another decade of blogging, Uncle Akin.

I am not sure religion is a comfortable turf for me to play in. Anytime I dabble into such issues with some of my friend, I seem not to agree with them on many things even though we profess the same faith. Often, I have always liked to argue things that are decidedly secular. In that terrain we can apply logic and see various points of arguments for their pros and cons rather than base it strictly on faith where we may never reach a common ground.

Right from childhood, I have always longed to get proper clarity between where the vestiges of deeply rooted faith in the supreme being stops and where it begins to metamorphose into just wishful thinking,  religious fiction or  mere fantasy. For ages, I craved to understand what exactly should be the ideal interaction between my faith and the friendship I keep. I have often wondered what the perfect way is to combine my faith and the boundary of friendship I make, especially with folks that do not share the same religious leanings with me.

I grew up in a home where people of other faiths were not spoken of or condemned with acerbity. The tone was not about our religious one-upmanship in serving the creator. Certainly, my folks were not the type that made you believe that you should relish the fact that you were heaven bound and gloat over the impending doom that will bedevil those on the other divide if they do not join you before they get ultimate call. Nevertheless, we were reminded of the verse of the bible that talks about not being unequally yoked with an unbeliever, “For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?” That is II Corinthians 6:14.

That verse created a mental imagery that resonated in me for a long while. I had the mental picture of oxen with a yoke on their neck pulling a plough in order to furrow a land in preparation for seed planting and other farming activities. By my understanding, this activity could only augur well for the two oxen if they were both willing to pull the plough. I fathomed then, that if an ox decides not to cooperate with the other and decides not to pull; it inevitably adds to the load that the willing one wants to pull. Therefore, I felt that if I was willing to do good, then friendship with an unbeliever either will weigh me down or would just dampen the resolve I had, to be a child of moral upbringing.

I remember being friends with people of the same faith yet different denominations, and I was looked upon as a lesser Christian. It was an inner battle I could not carry home. For, I have been made to believe at home that we were trained in the way of the Lord. It was puzzling for the small mind of mine to comprehend that these standards do not measure up to what my friends were expecting of a person that shares the same religious beliefs with them.

I was sitting in a Sunday school class one day when I heard about rapture for the first time. The lesson came with the teaching of the second coming and the great tribulation. It all sounded like fiction at first; a tragic play of the highest order, causing an untold amount of trepidation in my heart. Frankly, there was a preacher - still alive today - whose preaching on eschatology has caused me horrendous trauma and nightmares.

I used to tremble when I heard him preach on such topics, later I ran away from listening to his sermons and avoided his messages in print. The accompanying pictures were too scary for my fragile mind that I would feel like locking myself indoors for days so as not to go out into the ’ world’ and commit sin. Years later, I was to hear from Tunde Bakare in a message that you could maintain contact with the world without contamination.

To date, I am grateful I attended one of the unity schools where I was opportuned to meet with people from different backgrounds, religions and culture. It changed my perspective in many ways. My best friend for a greater part of my school days was one Lukman. We were both Yorubas, but he was a Muslim and most people thought we were brothers. We were so close that when some “nice” seniors stole my mattress, I slept on his with him until the end of the term.

My encounter with him uprooted every notion of stereotyping and every seed of fallacy of hasty generalisations when it comes to people of other faiths. I have had loads of close friends that belong to various religious bodies, denominations and persuasions. If I must add, sometimes I enjoy friendship with them than people of my own belief system.

Often it is not about those who share a similar creed with me. It is the mentality and notion most religious organisations inculcate in us about the others. I mean, “We have been saved, others are doomed for perdition mentality,” we have grown used to this mantra over time. A question some of us never think of asking ourselves is - “Would I be in this faith, if I was born into a family that wasn’t of this belief system?”

If we are frank with ourselves, a lot of us chose our creed by the family we were born into. That came as a default setting and we have never bothered to re-examine it ourselves. This acerbic condemnation is essentially one of the points the late great storyteller, Chinua Achebe, wrote against in his book, There Was a Country.

For a while, arguing religious issues has been a no go area for me. I hardly do it with folks I share the same faith with let alone people on the other side. This is because, frankly, our opinions most times come as fait accompli. Even when the evidence points to the contrary, we do not yield to superior argument. Often our religious opinions only hold water if we take a vacation from common sense. I am sorry, but that was not meant to be insulting. However, if we must be honest, religion more often than not, is no turf for logic.

It is easy to believe your religion is true, and others are just fiction. But in the midst of this, how do you find common ground? How do you ensure that you are a good ambassador of the faith you profess? Do you wear your religion as a signpost on your head saying “Don’t come near me; My God is a consuming fire?” Alternatively, do you relate with people with a friendly mien and welcome people with a warmly smile and hospitable warmth, irrespective of their religious leanings?

Do they look at you and crave to know the kind of God you serve or see you and wonder if you were also created by God. Sometimes an act of kindness persuades more than a thousand sermons. Mahatma Gandhi said, “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”

Are you willing to give the bread within your reach or you will rather pray that your God should feed them? Have you found that common habitable ground between your faith, your friendship and other people’s “fiction”? Think about these things.

419 Reasons to Like Nigeria - Get Involved!

Regaining our Nigerian Pride

Imagine the many times that our Nigerian pride has been punctured with having to defend ourselves against the stereotype of being known for email scams and related crimes that lead to the promulgation of the Article 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code.

The fight back has begun; we as a people and individuals know why we are proud to be Nigerians or to be associated with Nigeria through all sorts of relationships and interaction. Here is the background to this initiative.

419 Reasons to Like Nigeria

For Independence Day 2011, the 1^st of October 2011 which is the 51^st anniversary of Nigeria’s independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland we are going to town with 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria and Nigerians.

We are already halfway there with contributions from interested bloggers and social media users but there is much more to be done and hence this appeal for submissions.

The 419 Reasons To Like Nigeria initiative is being run in partnership with the 419 Positive Project which provides a multimedia portal for your views and opinions, however, this is what we want done.

Please do

• Send an email with your reasons, we usually require 5 but you can write as many as you want, to 419reasonsnigeria@gmail.com and remember to CC: volunteer@419positive.org
• Keep your reasons short, simple and “punchy.” [Forgive my lapse into clichés.]
• With your submission, if you have a blog or a Facebook page, please also include that detail.

Unusual and interesting reasons

Nigerians are known for their confidence, doggedness, resourcefulness, ability, optimism, adventurousness, culture, clout and much more – try for unusual and interesting reasons, think of selling the best of Nigeria and Nigerians to the world and in the process let us convert the negative connotations of the 419 stereotype to a positive of Nigeria’s decision to be the incubator and mover for lasting change amongst ourselves and to the world at large.

There is no time to waste in putting forth your reasons, they need to be collated and processed for publication well before the 1^st of October – we only have maybe 8 days at most.

Circulate this to as many as you can get to read and respond – in the worst case scenario, post your reasons as comments to this blog and they will be forwarded with full acknowledgement – this means you should provide a name as part of the text of your comment.

There are surely more than 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria and Nigerians.

419 Reasons to Like Nigeria and Nigerians

Rebranding Nigeria

An unfortunate article sullying the reputation of Nigeria and Nigerians as having a propensity for Internet Fraud, 419-related crimes [1] and email scams has set in motion an inspired campaign to convert the Internet search for “fraud” to results that will now paint Nigeria and Nigerians in better light.

Peter J. Reilly, writing for Forbes.com published an article three weeks ago titled Nigerians Switching From Greed to Fear [2] which he changed to Switching From Greed to Fear after a Nigerian took exception to his views in a comment; he then went on to write an apology Fraud Has No Nationality- Apology to Nigeria [3].

Writing for change

Meanwhile, Nigerian bloggers starting with Jidenma Nmachi suggested every Nigerian on the Internet should start a blog [4] to militate against the negative stereotypes of Nigeria with the hope that the deluge of blogs will take Nigeria out of fraud context related Internet searches.

Meanwhile, I felt before we all rushed to crowd out the Internet with blogs there was a fundamental issue with English education in Nigeria in a blog titled Nigeria: The need for improved English education [5] which was original posted on my blog.

It is interesting to note that a comment left at the NigeriansTalk blog suggests my writing as an example of the reason why this is needed, because in Peter Iredale’s opinion, I “lack the ability to write in clear, coherent, [and] grammatically correct sentences.”

I will be the first to say I do not have formal English qualifications at graduate level and even though English is my mother tongue, I have never pretended to write for the illiterate or those whose comprehension of English is below a particular level of professional education. Mr. Iredale is however welcome to redline my copy, and I am willing to learn to express myself more effectively in English.

Concerted Positive Branding

Then Chika Uwazie uploaded a video response at the following site The Truth About Nigerian 419: Response to Peter J Reilly Article on Forbes [6] where she advocated “Nigerians need to do more positive branding in order to remove ourselves from this negative label of fraud” and email scams.

This lead to an innovative and inspired idea from Peter J. Reilly in 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria and Nigerians - Part 1 [7] where he suggested Nigerians make lists of 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria and Nigerians, in what I think is becoming a crusade that is beyond redeeming himself for an infraction to helping initiate a concerted effort to rid Nigeria of atrocious stereotypes.

I will suggest that all Nigerian bloggers write a blog titled 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria and Nigerians and basically use every opportunity to turn a negative slur into a positive and wholesome reclaiming of Nigerian pride.

The association of 419 and Nigeria should begin to yield positive commentary about Nigeria.

Sources

[1] Advance-fee fraud - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] Forbes.com | Switching From Greed to Fear

[3] Forbes.com | Fraud Has No Nationality- Apology to Nigeria

[4] Why every Nigerian on the Internet should start a blog

[5] Nigeria: The need for improved English education

[6] The Truth About Nigerian 419: Response to Peter J Reilly Article on Forbes

[7] 419 Reasons to Like Nigeria and Nigerians - Part 1

Nigeria: Responding to Dan Primack's Atrocious Stereotype

Also previously published at NigeriansTalk.org with the same title.

Taking the hatchet to the hack

Very little upsets me but what cannot be countenanced is mediocrity masquerading as professionalism where clichés are allowed to get in the way of expected originality and the package does not contain what it says on the box.

In that sense you realise you have been scammed, swindled, defrauded and outwitted by a hoodlum, you could forgive yourself for being that silly but hoodlums with pens writing for popular magazines are dangerous and outrageously atrocious at best.

In my Twitter timeline I came across a number of exchanges that pertained to the pejorative use of Nigerian with the word Scam and a version 2.0 as if it was describing a more sophisticated scam that had emerged out of Nigeria and had been noticed by a hack writing for the National Enquirer or some sensationalist village rag until my search found that he wrote for Fortune.com.

The label and contents differ

There is definitely no reason for me to read Dan Primack’s Term Sheet apart from probably to redline it and award a fail but this perked my interest, Nigerian scam 2.0: Would you like to buy some Facebook shares? [1] and naturally, it was worth reading up on because I have written a few blogs on how social engineering is used to scam people.

Beyond the title, I could find nothing within the text of the published material that referred to Nigeria; in fact, it was in the comments that followed that the author tried to project a rotten stereotype that would make similar rotten and lazy epithets as Muslim Terrorists or Gay Paedophile sound tame.

We know Muslims in general are not terrorists and probably on a larger scale terrorist is a broader global thing hardly defined by religion, just as paedophiles are not necessarily gay and it probably covers all sexualities of adults abusing children – in the same vein, whilst scams might have come out of Nigeria, most scams are hardly Nigerian in origin despite the unfair slant of the media in castigating groups for the benefit of the subjective and sensational.

Link to link, story to story

The hack referenced two articles in his absurd copy, an Investor Alert [2] send out by the SEC and a Judgement Order [3] in favour of the SEC.

This little piece of analysis lead me down a rabbit’s warren of more references related to something completely contrary to the title and not one mention of Nigeria in the following articles.

Randy M. Cho according to the judgement order had been at his pre-IPO scamming business since 2001 where he had fleeced “at least $3.7 million from at least 45 investors in four states.” For the record, the states are geographical entities within the United States of America and these were about “expected initial public offerings of those companies, including Centerpoint, AOL/Time Warner, Inc., Google, Inc., Facebook, Inc. and Rosetta Stone, Inc.”

Searching for the remotest Nigerian

In the Investor Alert, we have more URLs that I also reviewed for anything that might remotely refer to Nigeria in the slightest.

FINRA Investor Alert: "Pre-IPO Offerings – These Scammers Are Not Your Friends"

The references are about the judgement obtained against Randy M. Cho whose name bears no resemblance to even uncommon Nigerian names and it even suggests you check the Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator just in case you are being conned by a criminal but this is within the extents of the United States.

Risky Business: “Pre-IPO” Investing

The helpful authorities then offered an example of a pre-IPO scam featuring a McWhortle Enterprises, Inc. which is based in the large premises of a private mail bag in Washington DC.

For someone who provides “The latest on private equity, M&A, deals and movements — from Wall Street to Silicon Valley”; his byline, one would have expected he would be informative about these scams and at least help people identify if they are being scammed but that would be too much work for a bottom-feeder of yellow journalism whose sensationalist copy sadly belittles those who accept his stuff with any sense of seriousness.

The failure to inform

The links below would have allowed the hack to ascend the steps of mediocrity to a semblance of amateur, it would be effusive praise to suggest professional.

Questions You Should Ask About Your Investments

Internet Fraud

FINRA - FINRA Warns of Facebook-Linked Pre-IPO Scams

How I wish Facebook were a Nigerian company creating such excitement for pre-IPO offerings that make fools part with their money at the sound of something almost too good to be true.

FINRA - Fighting Fraud 101: Smart Tips for Older Investors

Amazingly, even in this well written piece to the seniors, not one mention is made of Nigerians, rather, it simply asks that people note certain traits and characteristics because there are honest Nigerians who are involved in the financial markets, doing a job and helping their clients make good money in a marketplace that is properly regulated by the financial authorities anywhere they might be operating from.

Not anymore

A slight like this must not go unchallenged, only Dan Primack links pre-IPO scams to Nigerians, the Wikipedia reference to Nigerian Scams does not once link this activity to IPOs, the link is tenuous, contrived, lazy, atrocious, stupid and without foundation.

It goes without say that any advice that comes from the likes of Dan Primack should be taken with a pinch of salt or even a spoon of salt and immediately spat out as fantasy presaging possible fraud if he cannot apply himself to expected research and analysis required of people who have a platform like he has.

Nigerians are just not going to roll over and be kicked about by such people anymore; you picked the wrong kind of stereotype to push your irresponsible tripe.

Sources

[1] Nigerian scam 2.0: Would you like to buy some Facebook shares? - The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blog

[2] Investor Alert: Pre-IPO Investment Scams

[3] Randy M. Cho: SEC v. Randy M. Cho, Civil Action No. 09-CV-6261 (USDC) (N.D.Ill.)

Europe: No hiding place for Homo-nationalism

Minority is not inferiority

This represents a difficult subject and one of a very intimate nature that would well benefit from the kind of articulation I have brought to many issues that I have covered on my blog in the last 6 years.

I have been fortunate to have been born in Europe but had part of my development experience in Africa making me a product of the influence of all the cultures in which I have lived.

As a person of colour, one is in a minority but it does not then mean one should as well assume an inferiority complex. I have been blessed with a sense of awareness and being that has allowed me wade through the unfortunate scrapes with racism, snide belittlement and patronising conduct without being so negatively affected.

Comfortable in one’s skin

One somehow has a quality of assertiveness, if not wit where such encounters occur but not the legs to run when those situations have turned unnecessarily violent; in any case, I have refused to allow those experiences to take root and destroy the quality of self-esteem I believe I possess.

One place however where I have had some difficulty is where within a minority you then find vestiges of bigoted, intolerant, reprehensible behaviour, that just leaves you almost speechless, agitated and occasionally annoyed.

As I attended the Berlin Christopher Street Day [1] (CSD) celebrations, whilst I got wind of the event beforehand, I did not stay to witness it because I was quite exhausted and wanted to return to my hotel to rest.

Distancing from Homo-nationalism

Judith Butler [2], a renowned philosopher was being honoured with the ZivilCourage prize by the Berlin CSD, she was present but in the speech that they thought would be an acceptance speech, she declined the award castigating the pall of homo-nationalism that had become integral to the LGBT [3] movement in Germany and Europe to the exclusion of the recognition of the work, activities and plight of LGBT minorities.

It was a bold and brave stance to take [4] though the Berlin CSD organisers refused to engage or address the issues she raised and exhorted everyone to party on regardless.

A debate must ensue beyond the stereotypes that suppose that immigrants from the Global South are generally homophobic, intolerant, isolationist and illiberal in what has become a racist complicity perpetrated by organisations that are supposed to know better with their history of struggles for recognition, rights, fairness and justice.

A minority ignoring their minorities

The fact is we find such attitudes too amongst right-wing elements of Western societies and their fundamentalist counterparts around the world who abuse the purpose of religion to alienate, castigate, bastardise and condemn others in their quest for some sort of communal purity.

In the process, we forget that even amongst the indigenes of the Global South are people very much like us who suffer persecution in their homelands, rejection from their communities and in some cases serious violence amongst us in the West as their so-called loved ones portend to restore honour to their flawed ideals of perfection by eliminating what they consider as different or in the extreme abominable.

It is a shame that the seemingly emancipated networks of support created by organisations like the CSD cater mainly for their own without giving recognition to the activities, travails or issues that similar organisations catering for minorities try to address.

You come out to their public activities and might well assume that all minorities are heterosexual apart from the token few that dot the landscape only for their brazenness and boldness.

Killed for her sexuality

I am therefore pleased that not only has Judith Butler shed light on a subject many do not want to address, Angela Davis [5] has added her voice [6] to the matter.

What is interesting on the whole is that this situation is not limited to Berlin or Germany. In October 2009, an 18-year old Belgo-Moroccan girl, Layla Hachichi [7], was brutally murdered by her parents in an exorcism ritual which on examination was to rid the girl of her lesbianism.

The parents for all sorts of absurd reasons with the fact that they live in the West have surely not been able to understand the society they reside in. Whilst they might not have been able to accept the idea of their daughter’s homosexuality, the heinous crime of murder described in ways that make mediaeval torture tame is completely unforgiveable.

A silence so despicable

The sadder aspect of this is that it took almost six months for the Belgian umbrella LGBT organisation, Çavaria [8], to comment on the matter with the excuse that they did not have enough detail on the matter.

When an organisation like Çavaria is afraid to speak up for one of their own who just happens to be of immigrant stock for the fear of hurting the sensibilities of the community that has committed such atrocious crimes against a person for their sexuality, you begin to wonder if those organisation are from hence worthy of existence having failed to speak up for the voiceless, the helpless, the incapable and the unfortunate.

To redeem themselves they have assumed the stance of amicus curiae in the case giving them access to all facts of the case seeking justice for the girl. Though one must state that the facts leading to the murder of the girl had appeared in more than 60 articles, the excuse is flimsy at best.

No hiding place for Homo-nationalism

With Judith Butler, Angela Davis and many other commentators giving voice to this travesty, LGBT organisations would no longer have a hiding place when they are derelict in their responsibilities to all their constituency; obvious members, the oppressed, the ostracised or the afraid - that includes minorities in the West and those that suffer under unspeakable sanction in faraway lands.

Any LGBT gathering that fails to accommodate the minorities as part and parcel of the whole representation of the LGBT community at home first and abroad would cast the organisers as hypocritical and devoid of values, seriously unworthy of the social justice mantle they claim to have and detriment to any further struggle for rights and fairness as they will be open to justifiable criticism and derision. They have no hiding place anymore.

Sources

[1] Christopher Street Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] Judith Butler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] LGBT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] Judith Butler turns down civil courage award from Berlin Pride: ‘I must distance myself from racist complicity’ Loomnie

[5] Angela Davis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[6] Angela Davis on Judith Butler’s refusal of the CSD Civil Courage Prize

[7] Gay News ® : Letter from Brussels - Thousand and One Nights

[8] Çavaria | opkomen voor holebi's en transgenders

[9] News in brief | Flanders Today Published November 2009