When Black People Cry (That Means Everything's Fine)

A few weeks ago, I watched with much difficulty as a friend of mine broke down on a platform at Waterloo station on our way home,...

This man, who I have always held in the highest esteem, was bawling over his feeling of rejection and isolation within the confines of the elite, majority-white university where he is undertaking a Master’s degree. He explained to me how he felt his knowledge was “devalued” by some of his white classmates on the basis of his skin colour, apparel, gestures, accent and all the other characteristics which differentiate him from most of the class.

He told me his classmates take little interest in his contributions in the classroom, and that they hold assumptions about his point of view as a black male of African descent, assuming what he has to say would be irrelevant to their context and could only be representative of Africa instead,...