My boss and my friends regularly make racial jokes. Old Asian ladies look visibly upset when they suddenly see me and people have steered onto oncoming traffic to avoid walking in my general direction. Professors think I’m fucking retarded and I have to prove extra hard to them that I’m serious about this class.
I think indigenous people have it worse than me.
It is in my best interest to not appear black. I’m 96% Ghanaian. Even looking vaguely Indian or mixed would be a massive improvement in regards to how society perceives me.
I’ll try using this example:
Being very short in a very tall society as a man sucks. People automatically see you as being less masculine. You will have a harder time dating. Shorter people, regardless of competency, will earn on avg significantly less money over the course of a life time compared to taller people.
There exists really short people who have managed to attain a high income, a partner who loves them and is well respected by the society they live in. This person would also both be out of the norm and will admit that their life was unusually harder compared to his average height peers.
We now have surgery to increase your height. The short dude in question here would be justified in believing that life would be easier for him if he was taller.
I’m very black in a very not-black city. It is ultimately in my best interest to appear less obviously black. I can’t speak for Toronto but I’m not convinced that there is a pro black region anywhere. If you’re white/South asian/East Asian/Arab, you will be perceived as more competent than local Ghanaians as soon as you step foot in the country.
Skin bleaching happens to a ridiculous degree in Ghana.
I know my nose signifies that I’m black so I’m talking to a surgeon about rhinoplasty ATM. It would be nice if people just set aside their need to tell me that it’s racist the way I’m perceived and actually gave me some advice. We both agree that black = bad, so let’s skip over this conversation entirely.