ARE YOU BLACK?

Ever Seen An Illustration of a Black Fetus? Probably Not

Black voices, black creators, black businesses — there’s a reason why we should support ourselves

Photo by Tachina Lee on Unsplash

I saw an illustration of a black fetus in the womb of a dark-skinned woman some time ago, it had gone viral over the shock of seeing a depiction of a black anatomical illustration for the first time. Chidiebere Ibe, a first-year medical student created such a wonderful depiction which I would call rare since being a medical student myself never saw black anatomical illustrations in my textbooks.

It made me think about how much black voices have been segregated and underestimated to a great extent. I owe blames to no one but I realized how much many black voices, black writers, black creators, black businesses should all come together to acknowledge our worth and value more.

I grew up in a completely black and African society, somewhere colonialism had taken a huge turn on, someplace where white mannerisms and styles were highly influenced and loved solely because of the way the culture had been whitewashed. To sum it all up, I grew up in a place where even in the blazing hot weather, suits and coats were required to look fashionable and professional, and even with a delicious traditional dish like fufu that needed clean bare hands to savor the taste while remembering how our forefathers thought to create such — cutleries were influenced solely because it made one look like a white man, a classy white man. Deep down, I knew “hands” were classy too. It’s just the repercussion of colonialism.

I grew up in a place where a lot of books written by white authors were praised and highly recommended to us, kids when we were much younger. Even when deep in our hearts we knew we understood and related to the books written by black authors who usually wrote about black culture, aesthetics, traditional etiquettes, and lovely folktales passed from mother to daughter, father to son. We loved them yet they taught us the white books were much better even when we couldn’t completely relate.

A place where even when a black author wanted to write a fictional story, a white setting with white people would be optimally used. How did they…