The best way to confirm that racism is still a reality is if you are an African travelling to or through Europe.First of all attaining a visa to go to any European country is like begging for a visa to Heaven. You are required to produce documents that show almost the story of your life! I would really like to know if the documents required for an African to travel to Europe are the same kind of documents Europeans produce when coming to Africa. I understand that there are immigration policies but at times they are not fair. For some time now, I have faced this unfair treatment and kept thinking it’s because some Africans go to Europe and decide to stay there illegally. When going through the metal detectors it’s like they want you to walk through naked. The probability of the security personnel not putting you aside to check you again even after walking through the metal detector is quite high. Martin Luther King Jr. was quoted, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Today I refuse to be silent. I may have gotten used to the metal detector scenarios but there is no reason to explain what I went through when I was departing one of the Schengen countries. When I reached the all passports counter section, a man that received my passport, looked at my visa and noticed that I still had two extra days to stay, but I was leaving. I think he was surprised and could not believe that an African wanted to go back home. He looked at me and asked me to look straight in his face. I did so but he insisted that I look directly in his eyes. When I asked him why, he said he wanted to see if the photo in my passport matched my face. Then I did as he asked. I always thought that finger prints were the best way to indentify the true holder of a passport. I didn’t understand why this immigration officer put me through the discomfort of looking into his eyes. After two minutes of looking at him again and again, he called another officer, handed him my passport and asked him to take me to the immigration office which was on the side. The man took me out of the line and asked me to sit down. After a minute, a female officer walked over to me and also told me to look her straight in the eye. I did as she asked and after a few minutes, she stamped my passport and handed it back to me. I am thoroughly convinced that racism is still at large because in that same office were three Africans and one Latin American. I always thought getting into Europe as an African was hard but this was something else!
