How To Write About Africa

Throughout the past few weeks all over the internet, newspapers, televisions, as well as social networks, the case of Trayvon Martin has become more and more talked about on a national level. According to numerous sources as well as a police dispatch recording, a man by the name of George Zimmerman, a self appointed neighborhood watchmen as well as racist, made a 911 call in regards to a 17 year old boy who was wearing a “hoodie” and looked suspicious in the area. The police told Zimmerman to not follow the boy however, Zimmerman instead did not follow the police orders and within minutes shot and killed Trayvon Martin for no reason at all.

Trayvon Martin

This case may have seemed to be quite simple, however, George Zimmerman was not arrested for a crime that he committed, and instead Trayvon Martin seemed to have just been another black kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. While all of this was happening the President of the United States had a press conference saying that if he were to have a son that he would look just like Trayvon. The NAACP as well as other organizations across the United States were astonished and appalled by the injustice that this young boy had experienced and even with the President, government officials, as well as the entire nation questioning what was going on, Trayvon and his family seemed to be getting the short end of the stick.

Presiden Obama Press Confrence On Shooting

Then weeks after the horrific incident, a man by the name of Geraldo Rivera went on national television and pretty much said that Trayvon Martin died because he was wearing a hoodie and fit the description of a thug, black man, who was in the wrong. When watching this I was appalled not only because of his ignorant statements, but even more because on the day Trayvon Martin was killed, it was raining which is why the hoodie was on in the first place. The fact that Geraldo Rivera almost blamed Trayvon Martin as well as any other individual who was killed for reasons out of there control is sickening and really just goes to show how much stereotypes and false beliefs that society tends to associate with different groups of people.

Don’t get me wrong though, there are in fact men who wear hoodies in which are in the gang life, who do sell drugs and who are looking for trouble, however, that does not mean that everyone who is black and wearing a hoodie is a thug. Even if the claims were correct and Trayvon was in fact up to no good, selling drugs and walking the streets looking for trouble, that does not give anyone the right to kill him because in reality he did nothing wrong.



Stereotypes



This idea of stereotypes and false beliefs presented in the Trayvon Martin case really shares many similarities to the article How to Write About Africa written by Binyavanga Wainaina. In the article he spoke pretty much entirely on the continent of Africa and the ignorant stereotypes or claims that people tent to associate with Africa and its people. By doing so his article was written somewhat like a handbook of tips to write about Africa and its people in which was completely brilliant sarcasm. He said things such as “never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Piece Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these”. This is the first sentence of the article and shows already the way people view Africans. He then goes to describe Africa and its climate and he suggest that nobody really cares instead everyone assumes that it’s a place full of aids, famine, and malnutrition; leaving the idea that we should treat “Africa as if it were one country”.

Later in the article he continues to sarcastically make claims of African culture and people by making them seem almost un-human, and rather animal like. He says “make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things that no other humans eat. Do not mention rice or wheat; monkey-brain is an African cuisine of choice, along with goat, snakes, worms, and grubs and all manner of game meat”.

Binyavanga Wainaina

Now you may be wondering how in the hell the immoral and devastating Trayvon Martin case has anything close to similar to the How to write About Africa article, there are numerous things that they have in common. First off, both Trayvon Martin and African people were stereotyped, ignorantly blamed for there situations, as well as depicted as being something that they were not. Trayvon Martin was accused of being a pugnacious and thug-like kid who was causing suspicion in the neighborhood, when in fact he was wearing a hoodie in the rain returning home with an ice tea, a bag a skittles, and on his cell phone talking to his girlfriend when he was shot and killed for fitting a stereotype. African people and culture were depicted in this article as being somewhat hopeless, animal-like creatures who are violent, starved, aid infested and just as Trayvon Martin, falsely associated with something that is beyond there control. What I mean is that yes, there is malnutrition, poverty and disease in Africa, however, that does not give anyone the right to assume that all of Africa is like that and stereotypes set in place tend to give off that vibe. In regards to Trayvon Martin, yes, there are black men who wear hoodies, who sell drugs, and who are a reason to be of suspicion, however, that does not mean that all black men who wear hoodies are thugs and in the wrong.