My mantra is ‘Manifest the confidence of a mediocre white man’. In today’s lesson on why you should never sleep on yourself and why the white man is the perfect case study of confidence that overflows.
Cecil John Rhodes was a sick man who came to Africa because of a chest problem. His lungs were giving him some trouble and his parents suggested that he moves to Africa so the climate would help him get better. This was a sick young 17 year old man who in his sickness looked around Africa and thought, ‘I belong here’. The English can own this place. The English deserve to own the countries where I have come on sick leave. A man who was so sick that staying in his home country could have proved fatal, sat down while he was sick and brainstormed how he would gain power and wealth through imperialism.
How is that for some wild self-belief!
Think of the origins of the royal family in England. The royal family are basically tribal leaders in fancy costume. Their ‘big white man’ energy is how they have convinced the entire world that they were chosen by God and they have earned their place by birth. Somehow people do not ask the question of what kind of corruption happened for them to be in such close proximity with ‘The one who has never been seen’. In the same fashion they started wars all over the continent to defend the land that they stole. Even at the hands of defeat they would still want to negotiate to still own a piece of land that was never theirs.
Exhibit 3 of Caucasian audacity are the recent Cape Town protests. A few capetownians, Karens and Kens of this earth protested about their right to swim and surf during a global pandemic. Law enforcement just stood by and watched. They just stood there and observed the protests although the conduct of the protesters was unlawful and irresponsible. They defied physical distancing regulations and police watched as if they were watching a play. If Thabo and friends had decided to do the same thing. The whole scene would have looked like the Sharpeville protests of the seventies rubber bullets and police vans everywhere.
Exhibit 4 of Caucasity. Have you ever seen how rude a poor white man is? He sits down and thinks that there is no way on other that he deserves to be suffering. When they meet a person of colour who is doing significantly better than them they still think that they are better. He feels that he is born deserving. I do not blame him though. In the USA the white man is born with a perfect credit score , a good reputation and work experience.
In my analysis of why we should look to the white man on how to live as if the world is our oyster. A man in general is audacious, a white man is overly audacious. The phenomenon is what is called White Privilege.
So that this article is not reduced to white man slander , I will lead you to the roots of white audacity. At times it's hardly the white person's fault in present day society. A history of segregation, historical oppression amongst other injustices have left a deep scar in our societies both African and Western societies.
In present day corporate society, a black person is expected to work harder to prove that they are competent and that they belong. Essentially fighting to get into white spaces as well as fighting to stay there. Even in senior positions at corporate level , remuneration for black employees is considerably way less as there is the assumption that they can make do with less. The practice dates way back to apartheid and colonial regimes , an example of this was the difference among the remuneration of white, coloured and black drivers. One black truck driver said that he was told that the reason why he was paid less was that his lifestyle was probably cheap and he probably could make do with poor quality food.
Even when neo colonialism does not directly manifest itself , society itself has a lot of unconscious biases. An example of this is how a white man's financial credibility is less likely to be doubted just by looking at his face.
I do not deny that it is possible to be white and overlooked but it is less likely to happen. I am not saying that it is impossible for a white person to land in jail however the system that we have means that they are more likely to be gently handheld through what they did wrong than a black person.
In a society like ours whose wounds from discrimination are still fresh, sensitivity to even casual racism has to be normalized . Think about those restaurants where every waiter is white and the black people are the cleaners. The restaurants where all the waitresses are white students and the one black guy is the manager.
An example of being thoroughly colonised is treating clients differently when one is white and the other is black with a God complex towards the white person.
Whenever you feel low and out of place. Think like a Caucasian. Get up and have a face that demands respect, just walk like you own the place . Duh!
Caucasity- The Caucasian audacity to do socially unacceptable things
Capetownians- People who live in Cape town
Karen-Karen is a pejorative slang term for an obnoxious, angry, entitled, and often racist middle-aged white woman who uses her privilege to get her way or police other people's behaviours.
As featured in memes, Karen is generally stereotyped as having a blonde bob haircut, asking to speak to retail and restaurant managers to voice complaints or make demands, and being an anti-vaxx , Generation X soccer mom.