FORESKIN AS A CURE FOR RACISM

The first time you zone out, get lost in your own world in the midst of dozens of people in this conference holding in Austria is when someone mentions how one European country banned circumcision for men. It occurs to you for the first time in a long time that the practice of circumcision has roots in the Abrahamic religions. Someone in Europe thought it was smart to reflect the separation of religion from state by letting men walk around with foreskin. You have read of all the health reasons why foreskin should be cut off. And for you, nothing is uglier than a penis with foreskin.

You cannot look at any of the men from that country at the conference the same anymore. You do not want to file after them during break when they go to the bathroom--you do not want to be tempted to turn and look and traumatize yourself for the whole duration of the conference. Chris Abani’s 'Becoming Abigail' comes to your mind. The character Derek, with dirty habits, loved by the protagonist Abigail. She knew when Derek hadn’t taken his bath because “of the way his penis would smell and taste when she rolled back the foreskin”.  A room full of Dereks. That’s where you sat. People whose foreskins held tales of their hygiene or the lack of it.

Anyone who knew how seriously you were thinking of this issue of foreskin even as you walked to use the bathroom would not believe it. You think of how a simple decision like cutting off excess skin at birth makes the difference between how you feel now and how you think these European men feel now. As you pee, you look down and feel in that instant a sense of gratitude for this thing your parents did without thinking , because that was what the hospital said, and that was what everyone else was doing. It would have been horrible you think, to do what Michael, one of your neighbours growing up did--get circumcised secretly at 25 because his parents' church forbade circumcision and he couldn’t bring out his penis in a toilet full of black men without someone bursting into uproarious, uncontrollable laughter that would eventually spread through the room full of peeing men. He let a nurse cut his foreskin at 25 and exchanged a life of ridicule for one of peace.

One day after the conference in Graz, you walk into a big supermarket to buy cheap casual shoes for your trip to Venice. You need something flat and light because you are going to have to drive five hours and your host has told you it is against the law to drive without shoes. You find something that fits for 20 Euros. It feels like a bargain until you do the conversion to Naira in your head. Then the smile leaves your face. As you approach the elevator you notice a man inside trying to close the doors. You are faster than him and you walk in before the doors close. Then he runs out. He will not share an elevator with you. At first it is funny, the way he runs into the second elevator which opened at the same time. It is funny before it hits you that you are black and he is white. You grit your teeth and your nose trembles. But almost immediately the thought comes that heals you and makes you smile again. He is probably carrying foreskin around. You are circumcised and he is not. Suddenly all is well with the world again.