being qaali

When I was about 5, one of my friend’s parents got a divorce. It felt as if one day it was her, her brother, father and mother and a few months later it was her and her brother splitting their time between dad’s home and mum’s home which she now shared with her girlfriend. At that time, I had asked her about it one time and she said that that was her mum’s girlfriend and she loved her and I was like “Okay” and life carried on.

It wasn’t until a couple of years ago, with media coverage of LGBTQ issues being highlighted that everyday conversations sometimes touched upon these issues and I suddenly remembered that memory with my childhood friend. You see back then I saw absolutely no issue with it, it just was. It wasn’t abnormal or normal, it was her mum’s life but here I found myself in a time where everything was being scrutinised from who people love to the colour of your skin. If you choose to practice your faith or stand up for your people…the age of social media is living under a microscope of people who judge you but know nothing about you.

None of us are born prejudiced. We are not born racist or filled with hatred. We are born human and to each their own in their beliefs.

This morning I came across Christian Siriano’s collaboration with Barbie to create and all-inclusive line of Barbies with different skintones, hair textures and body shapes as a nod to his most iconic red carpet looks and a mother from Australia using Barbies to show same-sex families in a bid to urge Australia’s parliament to vote yes to same-sex marriage, it got my mind spinning. IF we’re using these interventions to teach and educate kids then we’re saying the reason we have the issues with equal rights and representation stems from them…right?

You see I understand the campaigns and making noise for change but the billions of dollars that control fashion markets, the people that control the publishing houses and the lobbyists and politicians that screw up healthcare and education are not playing with Barbies. TRUST AND BELIEVE ME ON THAT.

I like to say that kids are so pure and in tune with the world around them that they are the original empaths. They are very honest about not wanting to go give someone a hug or if something doesn’t look good on you…even going as far as snitching on their parents. They know absolutely nothing about putting labels on anything let alone on people. Society teaches them that, we teach them that and if you ask me I would trust a child more than most leaders that we have put into power, who have zero human decency or common sense.

The people that inadvertently and very deliberately influence our lives on a daily basis are not thinking about you or me, they are thinking about them dollar signs, power and sadly most of the time what serves their agendas. However it’s not all doom and gloom, because people have made strides to show that all of us can be capitalised off of, take Rihanna’s launch of Fenty Beauty which is all the talk with an impressive 40 shade range of foundations. Halima Aden wearing her hijab on the cover of some of the biggest fashion magazines. Africa is not gonna be ignored in the world wars of comics because we are WAKANDA as we await the movie of 2018: THE Black Panther countdown has begun.

As much as we are more connected than ever to the atrocities happening the globe over, when it comes to representation and rights we are moving forward. Of course it’ll never be at the speed that we want but the tide is turning.

Let me know what you think, do you trust the future generations more with these issues? Or do you think the leaders we have now are competent to get the job done?