about silent minority

I got interested in street photography because it allowed me to observe human behaviour and capture their interactions with each other and their environments. Between 2020 and 2022, when I started the Silent Minority, a fair amount of available street photography has been around protests - BLM protests, protests in support of groups being oppressed in other countries, protests against vaccination mandates and freedom of choice, protests against government overreach etc.

Each of these protests drew a hard line between its supporters and detractors. One would find it rare to encounter protest conversations where people sat on the fence. The polarization was evident in discussions even amongst family and best friends. Something more remarkable was that mainstream society always stood on one side of each of these protests and they made their side clear. The mainstream side was heralded as the standard for tolerance, awareness and virtue. So protesters were either fully justified for being on the right side or they were ‘spewing hate’ and therefore bigots. Consequently, with pressure from the messaging by the media/big tech, government agencies and workplaces, individuals are left with no choice but to either say nothing or publicly proclaim the mainstream view to maintain or showcase their perception of virtue. The mainstream view is therefore easily marketed as being the side of the majority.

The Silent Minority is the unspecified large group of people who choose not to express their opinions publicly. Typically because their opinions do not fit the popular narrative. Whether or not the silent group is larger than the loud group is not my point. I just want to extrapolate from that definition of silent to explain the idea of this blog.

Minority here represents visible minorities. Minorities in North America are considered supreme in all things related to the area they minor in. A ‘black’ person’s lived experience, for example, trumps any race-related logical dialogue. This gives loud minorities the ability to define the narrative for all minorities as having that single voice. I will be writing as one of those silent minorities who is ordinarily hesitant to speak up and express a voice that defines a different experience from that described by the loud minorities.

This blog is mostly part of my 2022 commitment to transition from journal entries to a daily practice of expressing my views on various issues that to date I had only shared with friends and family. Many of them consider my views inconsistent with my minority status as an immigrant from Nigeria. This incongruence is understandably fueled by the media’s narrative that members within each defined group cannot have diversity of opinion. 

I welcome differences of opinion and I challenge you to challenge my viewpoints as I hope to expand my understanding of nuances of race, politics, human psychology and religion.

I don’t consider myself a writer. My intention, however, is that before the end of the year, I will express myself more like a writer. Maybe even refer to myself as one.

Thank you for visiting. I will push to make it worth it.