Irenosen Okojie introduces the notion of black joy, in other words, explains what it is and why humanity needs it, in the cognominal video by BBC Ideas. In brief, this term stands for recognizing and appreciating the cultural heritage of people of color, such as reading a poem by June Jordan or watching a movie by Barry Jenkins with pleasure. As Okojie is a writer herself, how the wider public perceives her works and consequently her personality and talent is of special importance for her. According to her, people do not see a sufficient amount of black achievements around them because media, white art, and other possible information channels focus on crime. Consequently, the common opinion about the culture of color is dramatically different from reality, which determines the need for what she calls black joy.
I generally agree both with the speaker and with the author of the previous post since I have observed at least one case of racial prejudice that was based on stereotypes. The highly conservative father of my schoolmate was convinced that non-white people could not create anything worthy due to their supposedly less productive brains. That category included not only the black but Asian and Hispanic populations as well. The mate and I found it funny to make him acquainted with the works by outstanding black artists, such as Louis Armstrong, without specifying their race, which we did after he expressed his admiration.
Now I realize how important, although not quite correct, our actions were; their purpose meets the definition of black joy. I would like, however, to highlight the irrelevance of appreciating any random work solely because its author is black. It is more productive in terms of overcoming the stereotypes of choosing high-quality pieces of art.