{"id":52,"date":"2015-03-16T04:06:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T04:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/?page_id=52"},"modified":"2015-03-16T04:06:24","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T04:06:24","slug":"an-encounter-with-a-nigerian","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\/","title":{"rendered":"An Encounter With A Nigerian"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was last updated on the 15th March, 2015 by Patrick Carpen.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I was staying at the Takutu Hotel in Lethem<\/a>, around March 2015 when I met a man from Nigeria. He was working with the Broadband Internet Provider company and he had come to upgrade the Internet Service at the Takutu Hotel.<\/a><\/p>\n

The man was tall and slim, and powerfully built; nevertheless, I couldn’t judge his intelligence just by looking at him. That could only be accomplished by talking to him; and it was something
\nthat would be revealed in time to come.<\/p>\n

The first time I sat down for a conversation with the Nigerian, I opened the conversation with a joke. I said “friend, can you tell me what word comes naturally after the word Nigerian<\/em>“. He looked up at me keenly, seeming to know what I was driving at and prepared to “counter my attack”. He replied “you tell me what word that is, and then I’ll ask you a question”. I laughed, and replied humourousy, “Nigerian…scammer”.
\nHis response was fast. “And can you tell me what word comes naturally<\/em> after “Guyana<\/a>“?.<\/p>\n

“Land of many waters”. I answered.<\/p>\n

“No.” he said.<\/p>\n

I decided to shift into his favor. “Thieves” I laughed.<\/p>\n

“Yes…but not just that. Cocaine, drugs” he retorted.<\/p>\n

“But sir,” I said, “forgive me, you know, there are so many “scams” being carried out by Nigerians that the term “Nigerian scammer” became such a stockphrase in the mouths of people…but that doesn’t mean that it refers to all Nigerians. There is only a small group of scammers in the entire Nigerian population, and I’m sure there are many many good Nigerians too, and I’m sure you’re one of them.”<\/p>\n

“That’s right,” he answered. “And there are also scammers from many other countries in the world.<\/a> And also many of your Guyanese leaders and politicians are into drugs, but that doesn’t mean every Guyanese is tainted by it; I’m sure there are so many Guyanese who have never touched cocaine, or know what it looks like.”<\/p>\n

“That’s right,” I answered.<\/p>\n

I looked at the Nigerian at his work on the Internet equipment, and he seemed brilliant and astute.<\/p>\n

The next day, when I came into the lobby area where the Nigerian was working on the internet equipment, our conversation took on a different form. That day, I wasn’t feeling to well. I had problems of an emotional nature. The Nigerian man\u00a0seemed to notice it and asked me how I was doing. “I’m not well” I responded.<\/p>\n

“What’s wrong,” he asked earnestly, sitting down and looking at me intently. “You’re not well?”<\/p>\n

“I hurt, because I’m in love,” I said.<\/p>\n

“Tell me the story<\/a>,” he said.<\/p>\n

I’ll leave the story <\/a>up to your imagination, but the Nigerian guy’s response was this:<\/p>\n

“You know, women are like that, sometimes, they go around and around…maybe she is not ready for you as yet. But then one day, her eyes might open, and she might realize “this guy really loved me” and she’ll come back to you. But until then, leave her alone. For every beautiful girl out there, there are one hundred more just like her, so look further, don’t stop there, look beyond her…this is just something that we as men go through”.<\/p>\n

I must admit that he way he spoke…the intelligence in his voice, what he said, and the earnest desire in his heart to take my pain away touched my heart and sent shock-waves through my body. I felt my negative emotions leave me instantly, and tears welled up in my eyes.<\/p>\n

My mind reeled through all the racial and prejudicial statements I’ve heard about the black race from the time of my youth, and I thought to myself “isn’t time to stop judging people <\/a>without knowing the facts”?<\/p>\n

Related: There is\u00a0good and bad in every race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was last updated on the 15th March, 2015 by Patrick Carpen. I was staying at the Takutu Hotel in Lethem, around March 2015 when I met a man Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nAn Encounter With A Nigerian - Racism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My Encounter With A Nigerian - A Treatise on Racism by Patrick Carpen.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An Encounter With A Nigerian - Racism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My Encounter With A Nigerian - A Treatise on Racism by Patrick Carpen.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Racism\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/patrickcarpen.com\\\/racism\\\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/patrickcarpen.com\\\/racism\\\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\\\/\",\"name\":\"An Encounter With A Nigerian - Racism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/patrickcarpen.com\\\/racism\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-16T04:06:24+00:00\",\"description\":\"My Encounter With A Nigerian - A Treatise on Racism by Patrick Carpen.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/patrickcarpen.com\\\/racism\\\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/patrickcarpen.com\\\/racism\\\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/patrickcarpen.com\\\/racism\\\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/patrickcarpen.com\\\/racism\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"An Encounter With A Nigerian\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/patrickcarpen.com\\\/racism\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/patrickcarpen.com\\\/racism\\\/\",\"name\":\"Racism\",\"description\":\"By Patrick Carpen: The Greatest Writer On Earth\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/patrickcarpen.com\\\/racism\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"An Encounter With A Nigerian - Racism","description":"My Encounter With A Nigerian - A Treatise on Racism by Patrick Carpen.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"An Encounter With A Nigerian - Racism","og_description":"My Encounter With A Nigerian - A Treatise on Racism by Patrick Carpen.","og_url":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\/","og_site_name":"Racism","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\/","url":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\/","name":"An Encounter With A Nigerian - Racism","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-16T04:06:24+00:00","description":"My Encounter With A Nigerian - A Treatise on Racism by Patrick Carpen.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/an-encounter-with-a-nigerian\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"An Encounter With A Nigerian"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/#website","url":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/","name":"Racism","description":"By Patrick Carpen: The Greatest Writer On Earth","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PekbBW-Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54,"href":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52\/revisions\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickcarpen.com\/racism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}