Well, this piece is inspired by the latest social media outcry that followed to the announcement of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief who has been receiving racist insults amid the global efforts to fight coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, the subject of race has continued to be such a prominent topic between societies. Some say that the ‘business of racism’ is tempting to think of it as somehow “natural” or “innate.”
As we all observed the Ethiopian WHO leader, Tedros Adhanom (Ph.D.) said he’s been called names such as “black or negro”, and even received death threats. These came after complaints spearheaded by political establishments in Washington DC claimed that he helped Beijing lie about the coronavirus status in the early days of the pandemic.
These establishments cry foul that all through January 2020, WHO under Tedros, “vouched for Chinese authorities’ lies about the coronavirus, misleading other nations’ health authorities into underestimating the threat.” Including those who attached themselves to the complaints went beyond WHO premises to make sense of their target. Despite their all bad implications of Tedros’s erstwhile portfolios in Ethiopia, he got backing both at home and elsewhere including, the one carefully crafted, from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Ph.D.).
After Tedros claimed to have been the target of a three-month “racist” smear campaign of online abuse particularly from Taiwan over the aforementioned issue, Taipei rejected the claim and later accused Chinese internet users of spreading fabricated expressions of remorse in a coordinated effort to paint Taipei as the source of a campaign of racist abuse against him. One may ask why Taiwan is involved in this. Simply because Taipei who has long sought to gain membership to the WHO and other UN Agencies, has been barred by China – the regional superpower which views the island as part of its territory. Furthermore, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen challenged Tedros in a post on her official Facebook page by inviting him to visit the country “to see how Taiwanese commit to devote to international society despite being discriminated against and isolated.”
In 2017, the directorship of Tedros at the helm of WHO was seen at home as something momentous. He took the Agency as the youngest Director-General when it needed a new leader who can inspire the world. Tedros made all the way to be taken the best from his two contestants. His Ph.D. study supervisor at the UK’s University of Nottingham, commended his innate ability to mobilize and inspire communities towards better health aside for developing innovative techniques for the time, such as Global Positioning System mapping discussed in his paper “the Effects of Dams on Malaria Transmission in Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia, and Appropriate Control Measures”. However to the irony of him being “negro” and these commendations should come irrespective of the grimy picture portrayed to him at home mainly from ethnocentric attitudes that remain merciless no matter who.
Tedros is a soft-spoken man with an amiable personality. Before leaving the boat of EPRDF, (perhaps in the middles of nowhere) pursuing the global stage, he was one among few who dared to break the shackles of party constriction and express himself. By then he was visibly considered a cool fella in the house of bands. To that, he could be related to Abiy, who emerged from the same house. Had not things go unprecedented for EPRDF powerhouse at that time, Tedros would have been a better option to save time for the coalition to revamp its Arat Kilo leadership blueprint.
Black & Ethiopian
This writer would like to think about how Tedros comprehend the racial slurs that were coming to him given his psycho-social background as an Ethiopian black man. As a matter of fact, no Ethiopian could be free from racial slurs of any sort but arguably they have a different outlook about it. Is Tedros black? Yes, he is but he doesn’t give a damn about it. Therefore, it would be important to observe that Tedros doesn’t give a damn if that was because he is an Ethiopian Habesha construct where the notion of black racism holds a very meager purpose as a society.
An Ethiopian finds racial slurs awkwardly odd when told outside of his/her land. Tedros spoke in the presser saying: “I don’t have an inferiority complex and I don’t mind the personal attacks. But when the whole black community is attacked and insulted, that’s where it has crossed the line.” That clearly is an Ethiopian gesture of defying racism outside the home.
Cognizant of the fact that the diversity of Ethiopia is astoundingly beautiful in many ways; the issue of racism is by far more of a local ordeal in its context than triggering such a deep-rooted feeling of anger. Here is an insight into a man of Ethiopian origin who served with a U.S. Army. According to this man’s story, he barely understood racial oriented jokes or pokes thrown by white folks at his presence during a recess session. He would rather giggle with fellow soldiers than finding it to be an offense. For him, that particular joke could be an offense in the presence of other black fellows of different racial backgrounds.
This is obviously because the socio-cultural perception of racism is different for an Ethiopian man, which some say the effect of none colonialization. This writer recalls a study conducted in the U.S. Maryland area some years ago which claimed to have found out that Ethiopian origin cab drivers prefer to pick white people than blacks standing in a row. This finding could be attributed to many factors such as avoiding crimes but one cannot simply deny the mere nature of disassociation among these cab drivers.
On the other hand, an internet debate section says, race does not exist outside of the western world. Thus people in Africa usually describe themselves either by their nationality, cultural group they belonged to, clan or tribe. An African is an African but is also put into a more specific category of what that person belongs to such as nationality or tribe.
Nonetheless, over the years people in the western world have been made to be sensitive about the black race. While walking in the streets of Europe as a black man, this writer experienced no direct racial slurs but only ironically in the eyes of children (who are honest) held by their parents who visibly have some kind of though in their mind about the face they are looking at. Whereas in Asia (most of China to be specific), there is absolute absurdity towards a black person.
However, it is hard to distinguish the expression of people there – if that is racism or lack of information about other human kinds. To support the later, there was a popular photo circulated on social media showing a group of black children (somewhere in Africa) gazing at a white child sitting in the middle. This is an absolute depiction of an awareness issue. Had they know many white skin children before, they would have left for a playground altogether long ago. To that, it’s at the best conviction of this writer that the world doesn’t know each other very well. The cure for racism is knowledge.
The Ethiopian Herald April 14/2020
BY KIRAM TADESSE
