Dear [thinly veiled deep rooted in the subconscious] Racists

As much as I know that racism, prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes and the criminalisation of black males are all alive and thinly veiled, it's tough when I experience it first hand.

You can't describe me as threatening and aggressive, dismiss my existence and then expect me to apologise as you were belligerent whilst I was calm and rational.

It's hard being a black man in a country, which is all you've ever known, born and raised in Britain, but reminds you that you're still an alien from time to time.

I often question whether I'm too sensitive to the thinly veiled subtleties but after what I've experienced today, I realise that the world hasn't progressed for us, we're still fighting the same battles but who's fault is it?

Is it the perpetual cycle of stale narratives and discriminatory agenda pushed through TV, Advertising, Music, Film, or the age old self preservation philosophy of white supremacy that teaches generation upon generation that black people ain't shit but animals, drug dealers, slaves, hyper-sexualised harlots, violent and uncivilised baboons praying on frail, defenceless white folk, who need to be kept in cages and systematically limited in regards to social, political and economic mobility?

Are these the ingredients behind the subconscious motives of racism, prejudice, and privilege to tar the unassuming with the stereotypical brush of criminalisation and play victim in the face of dissonance.
To think that there are black people that go through this daily, some unaware and others playing a submissive role, then there's folks like me who attempt to rise above it and maybe write it off but after years of giving the pass it got to a point where I said 'fuck that!'

I'm not at fault, I am not to blame, I am not a slave to your preconceptions. I am a free man, free to think and make my own decisions so when I'm in a predicament where another black man, playing the mediator, tells me to apologise to a white man who's blatantly disrespected me, and then tried to project his anger and rage onto me, to make his job easier to end a dispute amicably, I refuse unapologetically. I stand my ground for mere principle than any of the trivial stuff on the surface.

Whether you're black, white, male, female, young, old, gay, straight, whatever the type of discrimination may be, always remember to be unapologic in your stance against injustice. Hold your head high, stay composed and never allow someone's negativity to enshroud you.

Peace and Love

Khalid Omari