By Tonderai Muponda

AMERICA has so often put itself on a pedestal as a beacon of hope and the very essence of the righteous pursuit of higher ideals. 

This ‘shining city on a hill’ mantra is eloquently espoused by former President Ronald Reagan in a speech in 1989, further entrenching this notion of the country. 

However, the journey up the hill has been treacherous; the path riddled with many shallow graves of innocent victims sacrificed along the way. 

If one pays close attention, it is quite possible to feel the gentle, yet deep, tremors right down to the foundational core of the walls of this city.

So often, events are picked up on the American societal richter scale with tremors felt in the shaky foundations; events such as Rodney King being violently beaten by LAPD officers in 1991 and Michael Brown who was fatally shot by a white officer in Missouri back in 2014.

These are only a few of a string of similar heinous police brutality crimes perpetrated on African-Americans that have been documented in recent times.  

The latest wave rocking the city foundations is as a result of the most horrific of murders by a group of uniformed Caucasian officers on an unarmed and seemingly complying African-American, George Floyd. 

Floyd was denied his pursuit of happiness; he clearly had a lesser claim to the American dream as was despicably pressed upon him by the law enforcement agents (pun intended). He, according to them, did not deserve even a breath of air.  

A loud conversation has ensued, on the issue of systemic and endemic oppression of people of colour through an unjust socio-economic institution, as the city on the hill threatens to lose its shine. 

Will Smith, a rare face of black success as a Hollywood actor, was quoted as saying: “Racism is not getting worse, it’s simply getting filmed.” 

This appears to confirm the notion that what we see is but only the tip of the iceberg in this deeply rooted racism and injustice that plays out daily in the lives of most minorities and people of colour. 

It is only now that the conversation is demanding a louder mouth piece.

The roots of this problem are founded in the dark past of the country’s birth, as it was built on the blood, sweat and tears of Africans forcibly shipped and enslaved to work the plantations of white American landlords. 

They suffered all sorts of inhumane treatment and oppression as they built what is now the so called ‘shining city’. 

Although slavery was abolished in 1865, people of colour continued to be handed the short end of the stick and remained shackled in their quest to secure a seat at the table. 

The civil rights movement was a moment in history when black people in America demanded to be heard. 

However, today they remain the demography with the highest rates of incarceration, the least access to education, health cover and ostensibly fall on the wrong end of wealth inequality gap. 

Disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, affected mostly black families and no prizes for guessing which demography is bearing the brunt of the latest COVID-19 global pandemic. 

Yes, African-Americans!

A lot still needs to be done to correct injustices in the US. 

For who can proudly stand on a podium and claim to be better because they are responsible for 10 deaths instead of a 1 000. Any death is a price too much; not even one should be considered acceptable in any free society.

It has taken the US far too long to be where it is today. Of its 244 years after independence in 1776, it took them a 100 of those to finally abolish slavery, notwithstanding the fervour in its contestation which nearly split the country in the middle. 

Cases of white supremacy and pro-confederacy advocacy on the rise in recent times have their origins during this time. 

It took them another 100 years to end legalised racial discrimination during the civil rights movement; the first real attempt to implement some sort of integration for people of colour. Never mind the gender issues as women were only allowed to vote in the 1920s. 

I would argue that most countries that are often criticised by America, particularly on the African continent, have done more in their first 50 years of independence to ensure equality for all citizens on both racial and gender grounds than America did in her first 200 years. 

May I hasten to say that we do have problems to attend to as Africa, but we too have made great strides as we rebuild our socio-economic fabric albeit without the benefit of cheap ‘slave labour’ or plundering the wealth of colonial territories for our benefit. 

If there is a point to be made here, it is that no one country should stand as a paragon of virtue over all others. 

We implore the ‘shining city on the hill’ to be careful not to drown in its own self-righteousness to the point of failing to listen to reason. 

The truth remains the truth, no matter how inconvenient and despite it coming from someone you regard so lowly.