Let’s start with some quick background info;
OceanGate Inc is a privately owned American company located in Everett, Washington. They specialize in providing crewed submersibles for various purposes like tourism, industry work, research, and exploration. The company was founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein. OceanGate made some interesting developments in its fleet. First, they acquired a submersible vessel called Antipodes. But they didn’t stop there. They went on to build two of their very own submersibles, named Cyclops 1 and Titan.
In 2021, OceanGate started offering an extraordinary opportunity for adventure seekers. They began taking paying tourists on their submersible, Titan, to visit the famous wreck of the Titanic. It was quite an experience! And guess how much it cost? A whopping $250,000 per person! However, tragedy struck on June 18, 2023, during one of Titan’s voyages to the Titanic wreck site.
The submersible imploded, leading to the devastating loss of all five people on board, including Stockton Rush, the company’s founder. It was a heartbreaking event that prompted an international search and rescue operation. After a few days of searching, the wreckage of Titan was finally discovered on the seabed, around 500 meters (1,600 ft) away from the Titanic wreck site. This devastating incident took a toll on OceanGate. They had to make some tough decisions. The company closed its Everett office indefinitely and put a halt to all exploration and commercial operations.
It’s truly a tragic turn of events for OceanGate and everyone involved. That said, here are a few reasons why we at Girlily think amongst the 5 people aboard, not one was a black person.
First Of All, Who’s Paying That Money???
Let’s be for reallll! You need to give a black person a damn good reason before they spend that kind of money. Chile, this isn’t it!
Black People Actually Respect The Dead
You know, a lot of our ancestors were killed, sacrificed and martyred in those waters. Black people know not to mess with the dead. We know to respect and leave them alone. Juju is real AF.
Black People Know To Leave The Ocean To Its People
It is complete and utter hubris to believe that besides animals, we are the only sentient beings that exist. The people of the deep are likely to be as real as you and I. Black people hold that plausibility close to their hearts.
The Generational Trauma Just Won’t Let Us
As already mentioned, many Africans were thrown over slave ships and many of them threw themselves because they’d rather die than serve another as a slave. The trauma from those events has been passed down to descendants and though we have no memory of it, our bodies do. Our bodies have kept the score.
In addition, for a very long time and even up until 2009, black people and other POC(People Of Colour) in America(and possibly other places in the world) were not allowed to swim in pools that white people used. To make matters worse, people of colour weren’t given good pools to use either and if they tried to use the white pools, white people would either pour acid into the water or beat them up. Because of this, there are generations of black people who can’t swim and are deathly afraid of water.
All of this put together would scare most black people away. Black people like to keep an eye on all the exists and most of us make sure we can escape whenever necessary. We can’t do that deep in the ocean and the generational trauma we all carry would make it difficult to step into that sub in the first place.
The Captain Holding A Video Game Controller For The Submarine Is A Massive Red Flag
A toy?? You’re taking me 13000 feet under the ocean with a machine that is controlled by a toy?? No, sir!! I’m hella good!
We Knew If We Went All The Way Down There, God Wouldn’t Hear Our Prayers
Black people are too suspicious. If we’re going to do something dangerous we need to be able to beg the heavens to look after us. Will the heavens hear us 13000 feet underwater???