This is precisely the question I asked myself recently. For now, I have not yet come across these barriers, and I hope I’m not going to meet them. But I have some ideas on that. I just recently registered to an art school and in the whole school there are maybe 15 black students. Before the new Star Wars movie came out, I saw criticisms on the Internet of the young actor John Boyega because he’s black. It really makes me laugh because Star Wars is a movie where there’s really everything—the universe is vast and full of super strange creatures—and the last thing I would have thought a Star Wars fan would do is complain about having a black actor in the lead.
That’s the problem in our society: people are scared of differences, scared to change things. We must get in our minds that differences enrich our consciences, and diversity advanced many things in history. We are now in 2016 and I personally think a lot of things have changed in terms of culture, religion, sexuality, art, and many others—although there are still things to improve.
I actually never celebrate Black History Month. I’m European and only indirectly
concerned about all that, even if it’s for a good cause. I don’t need to celebrate “Black History Month” to know who I am.