Blacks and Books

I have one time too many heard the statement "if you want to hide anything from black people put it in a book."

And while that is sad, there is something even more depressing.

I believed.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if I was suffering from I.I - Ignorance of Identity.

I love to read.

I am always reading.

Have always been reading.

There was never a point in my life when I couldn't read; that's as far as my knowledge serves me though.

I can't say I learnt to read at age one, two or three caz I really don't know when it happened.

It just did.

Another thing is that I am black.

Have always been black.

Well, as far as my knowledge and memory serves me.

Shhhh.

Wait a sec!

I think I am on to something.

I am black and I love reading.

If there's something to be hidden from me - a black person - it cannot be placed in a book.

Unless it's in a language I don't understand and I couldn't or at least shouldn't be required or expected to read such, as there's really no point in reading unaccompanied by understanding.

Okay. So now that I have established that, I am trying to wrap my mind around why exactly I believed the aforementioned statement.

Could it be that I am among a minority that has either been deliberately overlooked or ignorantly ignored?

Or could the statement be true?

I am not in a position to opine on its accuracy or not, but what I can say is this: as far as history goes, things were hidden in books from blacks, but them not finding the hidden or reading the book was no fault of their's.

It's as simple as they were not allowed to read the bloody books.

So, ahmmm ... how else were they to have found what was hidden inside?

Did you know that, in the America for example, blacks who could read had to pretend that they couldn't?

The stop lights became their nemesis.

If they got to it and it was on green they were forced to become colour blind, as they couldn't stop.

If they did, it would've been noted that they could read and there would be no reservations in their punishment.
So what the blacks did was to pray the light was on green when they got to it and if it wasn't they just ran the light, caused the accident and then they'd be forgiven.

Why? Cause it was assumed they did so in ignorance.

I believe that blacks not reading as much as we should is all apart of our slow recovery from slavery and it's impeding effects.

Now, if overtime you've gotten used to not looking in a particular place for something because it was always out of bound; because you were restricted from doing so and harshly punished if and when you did, what exactly would you do?

Think about it!!