What is human nature? I’ve have always wondered what human nature is and it has taken me a fairly long time to come to a conclusion. When I think about the mentality of most people, one thing that remains consistent is our ignorance. For example when I refer to ignorance I mean our ignorance towards learning, as we’re too afraid to learn and feed our minds, or more likely we are too afraid to understand anything else to what we already believe, (i.e. the fear of the unknown).

Our ignorance towards money because we are too materialistic to look past those material possessions that our money buys, not realising the good money could do for others, not just ourselves. But that’s okay because fancy clothes and flash cars give our lives so much meaning, (that being a quality that society has injected into our minds). Or could it be our ignorance towards power, because as humans we are so insecure that we need to enforce our power onto others, merely to state our dominance. What, don’t you believe me? Then just look at how over the years Europe and America have controlled parts of Africa and the Caribbean, disrupting their way of life, remember power is a dangerous tool if in the wrong hands.

And what about our ignorance towards each other, we have all been blessed with the gift of life and with that we must all try to live peacefully with each on the earth, well that is how it should be in an ideal world. However in reality I think we all know that it wouldn’t be human nature to show compassion to another person, especially if they look different or have different beliefs then our own, now would it? But lets not forget a very common human saying:

‘Ignorance is Bliss’

Now if you feel that what I’m talking about is too negative then I guess I’m going the right way with this. As a black man I find that the discrimination of black people and many other ethnic minorities within society is a direct example of the ignorance that resides in the world. As I mentioned before how the word nigga was designed to belittle black people, throughout slavery to the present date the media also belittles black people by portraying us as being less then human, in movies, advertisements, the news and many other media formats. 

Now on Sunday afternoon I was watching Christopher Columbus (a film which historical content merely stresses the foundation of the colonisation and control of black people, which then moved on to the present day) and while watching it I witnessed some disturbing elements. A popular broadcasting channel clearly ignored the 9pm watershed in order to portray naked black people as being nothing more then slaves to their newly crowed white oppressors. 

The question I want to ask is, would this channel show naked white people at a similar time, to establish historical knowledge? It is ever present that the media continuously belittles black people by presenting negative views and enforcing stereotypes. Stereotypes and ignorant views that all contribute to black people being both boxed in and classified as outcasts and less then human in the world that we live. 

The hardest thing to come to terms with is the way we are portrayed to the open world when we look at the way black people are represented in movies; the typical black person is of a low class status, unemployed, uneducated and the majority of the time living a life of crime. And these representations that are ever present in movies merely add fuel to an ever-growing fire, as society believes that this is a real life portrayal of how black people live. 

Though it doesn’t help with the growing presence of black-on-black crime within society the problems that we have within the black community are manipulated by the media and the outside world and as a result of that many black people become frustrated and they feed off their anger to fight back at the world that has neglected and attacked them for so long. Ideally we as black people need to stop giving the media and society the material it needs to keep on defaming us and the lifestyles that we live because the more we remain ignorant, by excepting or by merely not caring about the way we are perceived the more likely it is that the media and society will continue to present us as being less then human. 

SLAVERY NO LONGER OFFICIALY EXISTS, LET’S TAKE CONTROL OF OUR OWN LIVES.
AMANDLA!!!