I came across a reel showing white students in 1970s Zimbabwe talking about their Black peers.
Some of their phrasing feels condescending by today’s standards — but let’s not forget, it’s the 1970s. And what they’re mostly saying is that you should look at the person, not the skin color.
The comments got stuck on one specific line:
“I see an intelligent person, not an African.”
How can you interpret that?
Well, consider these parallels:
- “I see a handsome man, not a gay guy.”
- “I see a healthy person, not a smoker.”
In the first case, there’s no implied opposition — being gay and being attractive are orthogonal traits. In the second case, there is an implied judgment: tobacco use is bad for your health.
So when I heard “an intelligent person, not an African,” I saw orthogonal vectors — the guy was just explaining what matters to him in a person. But the progressive commenters saw racism.
Oh irony, thou art a heartless bitch.