The Dream Nation Gala Photo That Had Many People Talking

A few days ago a picture posted on Instagram of a few black students went viral on UK Twitter. The photo above displays them practically being goofy at the Dream Nation Gala event, (that we told you all about weeks ago!) Read what Anthony Olanipekun had to say…

Following on from my most recent post on Simply Oloni, my observations within contemporary society has shifted to the topic of how black women and success are perceived.

It is rare to see success amongst black people being celebrated in the media or within mainstream society unless there is some sort of agenda behind it. Rarely do we see anyone being celebrated if they are black unless they are in entertainment or sports. It is even less likely that you’ll see a black woman being placed on a pedestal and celebrated unless she is Oprah or Beyoncé. So when I logged into my Twitter yesterday to see 7 beautiful young women celebrating their achievements I was pleased for them. Furthermore I was pleased to see more young women who could be deemed as motivators, role models and examples to other women who may think success only exists within other races.

The photo was captioned ‘two bankers, two lawyers, a scientist, a dentist and a doctor – and those are just the day jobs’ followed by a number of hashtags which really expressed how proud these women were. Judging by the seemingly popular debate online, this image and its captions were perceived in two ways.

Below are screen shots of some more of the comments that were made.

On the one hand you had people celebrating the image and hailing it as something the black community should be proud of. The fact that they were all women was a bonus for me, to see women uplifting each other and embracing their achievements is a rarity so it was refreshing to see. For some, it was the inspiration they needed to pursue a career they might have thought was impossible for them to achieve, for others it was a reminder that with hard work and determination, one could be the subject of such celebration and community pride! For me, it pushed me to focus on graduating and one day celebrating my career like those in the image were able to.

However, there were people who saw this image and perceived it in a different way. For some, it was too boastful and lacked class. I did not quite understand the backlash that this image has generated, after all, these young women were merely enjoying each other’s company and highlighting how hard they had worked. I observed that many of those who had negative things to say about it were men.

I had to ask myself, ‘what is the problem?’.
After I came to the conclusion that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the image or the captions I began to wonder whether there is something about successful women which unsettles some of my fellow men.

Is it a case of insecurity? Knowing that there are women out there doing great things could make some men aware of their own lack of achievements or tamper with their idea of a ‘normal’ society; men being the achievers and women being the inferior gender. However in my opinion, only a person lacking vision and confidence in their abilities would want to downplay the achievements of others.

Could it be jealousy? Again, only someone who wishes they were as successful would tell another person to be quiet when sharing their proudest accolades.

The editor-in-chief of Simply Oloni, Dami Olonisakin caught up with the founder of Dream Nation, Claud Williams and spoke to him about his thoughts on the photo from his event that went viral. He said:

“People often have a negative reaction when they see things that they don’t believe is normal or possible and it’s not because they want to be negative, I just feel as if it’s become part of human nature to have a fear of the unknown”

He also added:

“I think the fact that they were women had a really big impact on it, you can see that because of the comments that were made.”

Claud Williams carried on by saying:

“The Dream Nation Gala is an event for them to have fun which is exactly what happened. That picture wasn’t taken to boast or show off. They were literally having a nice night out celebrating the end of the year with a bunch of great people which is the Dream Nation community. So the fact they did happen to caption their careers or what they’re studying for.. to me that’s a great thing. The fact they have managed to remain friends and all push each other in difficult careers and careers where we need more young black people in.”

It is these types of negative reactions to positive things which cause so many people to keep their proudest achievements to themselves. In a society where women aren’t perceived as successful, and are attacked for showing that makes me wonder whether there is an agenda or plot to keep women down. Why should the way people express themselves be governed by society? Furthermore, what purpose does it serve to continuously break down our women.

We live in a society which needs more women in senior positions to lead and contribute to the number of success stories that we see. Young black girls who are told that their ancestors were slaves and that they are not beautiful enough to grace the front cover of magazines need to see that there are other ways to be successful and beautiful at the same time. In fact, these types of images should not be an anomaly.

I have recently been encouraging people to be introspective and find reasons as to why they love themselves. It brought me great joy to see self love being demonstrated in such a way, plus the image and the poses are pretty fly! It is now time for us men to uplift and celebrate our women when they do things which society chooses to keep quiet about. Let’s be proud of our sisters and encourage them to keep being great or to keep striving and aspiring to greatness rather than trying to make them feel guilty for being proud of themselves.

By @TonySupreme_

For more information on Dream Nation click here: http://dreamnation.co.uk/