What is Afro-pessimism?

 

What is Afro-pessimism?

Afro-pessimism isn’t a term you can Google and easily understand what it means. If had Googled the term without any idea of what it meant, you still really wouldn’t understand what it means. Wikipedia is the only site that I have found that gives a good definition of Afro-pessimism. Afro-pessimism describes the ongoing effects of racism and enslavement of African Americans. Afro-pessimism is a claim that there is a distinctiveness between being human and being black.  This is an ongoing problem in society that more and more people are pointing out every day. We see Afro-pessimism every single day and the way it is wrong for someone else to be treated as less of a human, yet it’s still a problem many don’t want to speak about.

Afro-pessimism is a problem that many of us see every day, even if we don’t realize that is what we are seeing. You can witness Afro-pessimism as the grocery store, on social media, on the news, in professional environments, and anywhere you go on a daily basis. Afro-pessimism is anytime you see that older white lady refuse to let the young black man serve her food or the white man that talks down to his black coworker because she is black. We’ve all seen the horrible and sickening videos of white police officers throwing innocent black men and women on the ground or against the hood of their vehicles without a single thought. Everyone knows it would have been a totally different situation if it had been a white man or woman that was wrongfully accused of something. This is the Afro-pessimism that we all see every single day and yet so many people choose to ignore it.

Many of us have seen examples of Afro-pessimism in television through the new or television shows and some movies. I recently saw this in an episode of Station 19, which is a television show about first responders. In the episode two young black girls were kidnapped by a white man who refused to admit he had them locked I his basement. One of the mothers brought it to the off-duty first responders’ attention, two of which were black people. The first responders called law enforcement who did nothing to help them, so they took it upon themselves to try and convince the man to come out of his home. Shortly after speaking to the man the girls had started a fire in his basement which eventually led to the first responders saving their lives. Police charger the man with kidnapping and a couple other charges, the kidnapper wanted to press charges on the two black girls for arson, obviously leading to everyone getting very upset with him. The black mothers and first responders charged at the man, and all had guns pulled on them and were arrested for trying to protect the young girls who were kidnapped. This episode along with many others from different shows I have watched show what it is like to expect Afro-pessimism in the attempt to make others realize what African Americans go through every day.

Afro-pessimism is something that I feel more people should be worried about. Afro-pessimism means that African Americans are still treated as if they are less than human simply because they are black. Afro-pessimism explains the ongoing effects of slavery and the unnecessary hatred African Americans experience every day. I believe everyone should research Afro-pessimism and try to prevent this from being a further problem that black people experience.