Another pandemic is gripping across the US. It’s not a lethal disease but a racial tension, which is destroying the social and moral fabric of America, marked by massive protests across the country. It is caused by inequality, discrimination and disenfranchisement of its black population.
The recent death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black American, at the hands of four police officers that arrested him, has triggered the current conflagration.
A video taken by onlookers showed three police officers kneeling over Floyd, with one pinning his knee on Floyd’s neck while the latter was pleading that he could not breathe. A fourth cop merely watched as the gruesome act was taking place.
It was a surreal scene showing police brutality over an unarmed man who was already handcuffed and fallen to the ground.
Outbreaks of demonstrations that started in Minneapolis where the arrest occurred erupted in several big cities all over the country. Anger and pain were painted on the faces of the protesters in St. Paul, Denver, New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston and many other places.
Even the White House was forced to have a brief lockdown when hundreds of demonstrators milled in front of the President’s official residence. In some areas, violence exploded. Protesters vent their ire by setting fires on buildings, smashing windows and burning cars.
The Minneapolis Police Department 3rd Precinct, which is the closest police station to the place where Floyd’s arrest took place, was burned down to the ground. A demonstrator was caught on camera saying, “This is what we’ve got to do to have our voice heard.”
In Minneapolis, the epicenter of the protests, more than a thousand marchers defied the curfew with crowds of people chanting and shouting alongside the roads. The CNN reporter commented that during the curfew everyone was present except the police.
Vandalism and criminality such as looting, arson and killing should not accompany the protest actions. A police officer was almost run over by a car in Detroit while protesters in New York clashed with the police. They are serious offenses against civil society, which no government should tolerate.
It’s true that civil protest is a healthy sign of democracy but authorities should be able to draw the line between legitimate mass action and hooliganism. Black lives matter but the blacks must also show that they are deserving and worthy to have a seat on the table.
No doubt, there is anarchy in the US. With the US Presidential election coming up within the next five months, I hope that this chaos will not be politicized. We don’t want any ideologue to weaponize race as a tool to rule the government.
America needs a president who can pursue and implement America’s unfinished business that black lives really matter. It does not need one who throws gasoline around while its cities burn.
No doubt, President Donald J. Trump’s incendiary remark that “when looting starts, shooting starts” only fanned the fire. A far cry from the improvised speech that Robert Francis Kennedy delivered in a black ghetto in Indianapolis before the tension-filled and wailing black audience shortly after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
RFK was supposed to deliver his usual fiery campaign speech to win his party’s presidential nomination in 1968 when he was told about MLK’s killing. Despite being warned of possible riots and genuine concern for his own safety if he announced MLK’s assassination, he canceled his campaign speech and instead delivered a short but impassioned remark.
RFK admonished the crowd to “replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.” And quoting the Greek playwright Aeschylus, RFK said: “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
As tension boils over and national outrage spills around the country, Americans should bring RFK’s words to mind and restore sanity in the wake of this havoc. RFK is a truly great American whose life was also snuffed by an assassin’s bullet some two months after MLK’s death.
More than 50 years have passed since the enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, it seems there has been very little progress made on that front. Many white Americans still hold in contempt the blacks, yet every election year politicians courting the black votes make promises to improve their lot.
Americans have the opportunity to effect real change in the US come November 3, 2020 if they truly care for their country. Blacks should go out and vote instead of creating chaos in the streets.
More than ever, now is the time to elect a more solid and stable president who will pursue the American dream of unity, peace and progress where every life matters regardless of color, sex, creed or station in life.
Image credits: Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP