Black people are bearing the brunt of police personnel due to ingrained racism and injustice in the US, Europe, and Asia.
Few days, a sadistic American cop mercilessly knelt on the neck of a handcuffed African-American man for almost nine minutes, while three other colleagues stood watching. The man was later taken to hospital where he breathe his last. RIP George Floyd.
The murder of Floyd is similar to the case of Eric Garner in New York when Mr. Garner said the same words before dying at the hands of police in 2014.
I regard this as a horrible, gruesome, and inhumane act from a US police in the 21st century. Does Uncle Sam teach its officers in the 21st century to pin a knee to the neck when making arrests? This does not reflect the values of this noble professional.
This is a depressing pattern of structural racism and brutality by police against black Americans in a country believed widely to hold the values of JUSTICE.
With the death of Floyd, the widely acclaimed justice in the United States of America is now QUESTIONABLE throughout the world. Can Uncle Sam come out again and offer to other countries lectures on human rights issue?!
The failure to protect blacks and other races in America against police brutality is horrible. Black Americans have often been victims of encounters with the trigger-happy police force in a country that has always been releasing reports about human rights, minorities, and justice in other parts of the world.
Uncle Sam needs to WALK HIS TALK.
The rotten racism in the great bastion of democracy in the world is far from control. Barack Obama’s administrations, who was also a black American, did not address this gaping wound during his two terms.
I don’t think the current administration can solve this ingrained racism either. Instead of addressing the situation, a fog of heavy militarisation has descended in several states.
Uncle Sam’s soil is impregnated with the blood of black people who are exposed to the structural racism inherent in education, the justice system, and jobs.
Leaders, from both parties- Democratic and Republic-need to have a strong will to change the law to ensure justice to all American citizens regardless of their color, origin, or religion. They need to put an end to this inhumane pattern.
The gap between the community of black Americans and law enforcement will keep widening if this structural racism is not addressed once and for all.
When this kind of barbarism happens, we often hear officials offering pacifying words, studies are commissioned, official reports are produced, and recommendations are issued. However, all these remain ink on paper. After one or two years, another black American is mercilessly killed.
US authorities need to take action to address racism, transparency, and accountability, in addition to policies that monitor police-citizen interactions from time to time.
Firing the officer responsible for Mr. Floyd’s life is certainly welcomed; but, words alone cannot demonstrate a commitment to justice.
I urge US authorities to always select qualified law enforcement personnel with a reliable track record of success in enhancing meaningful diplomacy with Black American communities.
The merciless murder of Floyd has tainted the American ideal of equal justice for all.
The critical issue is that the criminal justice system gives police officers the power to systematically harass and kill black people with impunity.
We stand with our brothers and sisters in the US in these difficult times and we hope that this systematic tragic death of Floyd will inspire a complete change in how Uncle Sam confronts hate and racism.
However, this ingrained racism is not limited to the US alone. It is also rampant in Europe and Asia. Black Africans have never been at ease with other races.
Black Africans have been murdered and killed, in the US and Europe, even by the police, just because they are black (people of the lesser god!). Anti-black racism is pervasive in the Western world.
In 2011’s protests in London after Mark Duggan, a black man was shot and killed by the police. Across the channel in France, major protests and riots ensued following the 2005 deaths of Bouna Traore and Zyed Benna, two teenagers who were electrocuted in an electrical substation while trying to evade the police. The same year, Oury Jalloh, a Sierra Leonean asylum-seeker, died in a fire in a police cell in Dessau, Germany.
A Nigerian national was killed in Guangzhou in China in 2009 during an immigration raid. Many African workers and maids are tortured in some parts of the Arab world with impunity. The media does not shed light on this torture.
The view of western societies and others in Asia about the blacks do not differ significantly. Their ideas are largely based on two important historical events- African slavery and colonialism.
In Notes from Black Europe, British writer Johny Pitts says the trans-Atlantic slave trade has played a major role in shaping how race is seen in the West.
"[It] still informs and underpins, even if on a subconscious level, the hierarchies in Western civilization and throughout the world." he writes.
African men and women are exposed to racism in transportation means, sport fields, hospitals, work places, places of worship, and shopping malls.
The most striking observation is that non of the so called democratic countries or allies have condemned this horrible act of racism. Why? We have not heard any statement from Berlin, Paris, Brussels, and London. Had it been a dog killed in one of the third world countries, then we would have listened to condemnations in all the western media. But since it is Uncle Sam, no one can dare say something is wrong. To the weak, they act like lions, but to the strong they become ostriches! This is the hypocrisy in the WEST.
I also urge all protesters in American states to protest peaceful and avoid looting and vandalism.
Thanks to all those protesting out there- in London, Berlin, China, Iran. Kudos to soccer stars who are wearing T-shirts bearing Floyd's name and kneeling down in support of the black Americans who are exposed to structural racism.
Thanks to the African Union, at least you have raised your voice in support of our kith and kin in the United States of America.
America and the world in general would be a better place once this ingrained racism is put at bay and bring to justice any law enforcement personnel who acts contrary to the noble values of this profession.
I express my deep condolences to the family of George Floyd. I can't breathe, BLACK LIVES MATTER.
By Mohammed Ahmed Taib
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