I am Onii Nwangwu-Stevenson, a Nigerian; Black and proudly that. I make no apologies to anyone, and it will not matter if anyone is scared of sharing a space with me or any other Black in this wide world.


Since, by my faith, I believe that a Supreme Being created this world and all that is therein, I can only refer all the Black-hating people to go locate God and ask him why He didn’t make the whites the only occupants of Mother Earth.


Black-hater, I demand that you stop targeting my people with all manner of genocide.


I am enraged, outraged, and embittered at the meaningless, callous, and wicked humiliation and murder of George Floyd. Even a “common criminal” has fundamental rights and will not be condemned and killed without due process. Why was George pinned down and life suffocated out of him even as he repeatedly and helplessly pleaded that he couldn’t breathe? 


Were the “holier than thou” white police officers, who orchestrated and supervised the dastardly act that culminated in his death, so scared of a helpless and subdued Black USer that they couldn’t handcuff him? No! How else could they have shown how “powerful” they are!


Would they have treated a white USer that way? I make bold to say, No. 


We deserve our space on this Mother Earth. We deserve respect and, indeed, unreserved apologies from the whites whose ancestors massively plundered and exploited Africa’s human and natural resources via deliberate acts and institutions that included slavery, colonialism, and religion.


Despite the teachings and direction in RC, I have on several occasions witnessed and experienced nuggets of racism that have left me much disturbed and disappointed. That will be a discussion for another day. 


I have tried to be kind to myself by reminding my dear conscious and subconscious mind that though we are all RCers, we come from different backgrounds and have different experiences and struggles; and, most important, that I am human—no better or worse than any other. Certainly, I deserve my space, as much as any other.


I am proudly African. I weep for the senseless loss of yet another “African in diaspora.”


With love from a broken heart,