By Eunice Masunungure
POLICE killings of African-Americans, the retaliatory violence across the US and the emergence of ‘Black Lives Matter’ since 2012, are not the beginning of political and social violence in the US but a manifestation of poor race relations and a connection to the slavery era and continued cries of black people for a decent life in the so-called land-of-the-free.
The incident of May 25, in which a 46-year-old black Minneapolis resident, George Floyd, was knee-pinned face-down on the ground, in handcuffs, by a white police officer, for about six minutes as evidenced by a video clip, clearly shows racism is alive.
Protests over racism have erupted across American cities, with angry demonstrators torching police vehicles.
The same protests have also been witnessed across a number of European cities, with demonstrators congregating at US embassies.
This is reminiscent of anti-slavery demonstrations.
It appears the world has had enough of America’s brutality on people of colour.
Floyd’s name adds to the list of names like Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and many other unarmed African-Americans who died at the hands of the police.
The “…long line of killings of unarmed African-Americans by US police officers and members of the public,”are condemnable, UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on May 28 2000.
But nothing has changed, the brutality has just gotten worse.
White America remains unrepentant.
Instead of self-introspection, the US’ National Security Advisor O’brien has pointed fingers at Zimbabwe, as well as China, Russia and Iran, describing them as foreign adversaries fomenting racial issues and unrest in America.
President of the US Donald Trump’s tweets from his mobile phone on May 29 2020 about Minneapolis ‘glorifying violence’ also reveal the engraved negative perceptions about blacks.
Tweeted President Trump:
“These thugs are dishonouring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen.
Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the military is with him all the way.
Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you.
“Get tough Democrat Mayors and Governors,” Trump tweeted on May 31 2020, even as protesters gathered outside the White House for the third day.
Being black in the US is still a crime to white America as was the case in the slavery era. How are words like ‘thugs’ any different from the days when blacks were referred to as ‘niggers’.
The term ‘thug’ has become the standard word to describe black males perceived to be below the ‘high standards’ of white America.
For example, NFL football player Richard Sherman was called a ‘thug’ for his post-game interview following the National Football Conference (NFC) Championship game in 2014; blacks do not qualify for the sacrosanct freedom of expression apparently.
Political adversaries of President Obama such as Michelle Bachmann, Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh have referred to him as a ‘political thug.’
Words like ‘thugs’ should not be underrated at all.
In slavery times, naming was hooked to white ability to control the black body and mind, creating the idea that slavery was the best position for black people.
Calvin John Smiley and David Fakunle argue in their recent work From“brute” to “thug:” The Demonisation and Criminalisation of Unarmed Black Male victims in America that the synonymy of blackness as criminality is not a new phenomenon in America.
“Stereotypes, and racist ideologies led to discriminatory policies and court rulings that fuelled racial violence in a post-Reconstruction era and has culminated in the exponential increase of black male incarceration today.
In the 21st century, this negative imagery of black males has become terminology ‘thug’.
Unreasonable use of deadly force on Black males allegedly considered to be ‘suspects’ or ‘persons of interest’ is still not very different from the linchings and hangings of suspected slaves in slavery era.”
Blackness in post-slavery era is, therefore, still synonymous with criminality.
Like slaves before them, black Americans’ call: ‘I just want to live’, continue to be made.
However, the call continues to fall on deaf ears.
Their anti-oppression call, reminiscent of Malcolm X’s argument in By Any Means Necessary: “Human rights! Respect as human beings! That’s what American black masses want. That’s the true problem. The black masses want not to be shrunk from as though they are plague-ridden. They want not to be walled up in slums, in the ghettoes, like animals. They want to live in an open, free society where they can walk with their heads up, like men and women!” is still being made but to no avail.
Since abolition, blacks’ freedom founded a growth in African-American participation in politics but the white force never stops working against them.
Thus, black participation in politics remains low, which naturally leaves them without a voice, or at most a weak one, just like in the times of slavery.
Their ‘less privileged’ position has also been brought to the fore by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is the communities of colour in America that have been heavily burdened with health and economic consequences.
“States where black communities make up only a relatively small portion of the population, nearly half — if not majority — of all COVID-19 deaths are members of the black community.
This is largely due to environmental, economic and political factors that have compounded for generations, putting black people at higher risk of chronic conditions that leave lungs weak and immune systems compromised: asthma, heart disease, hypertension and diabetes. Recycling and environmental racism, for example, have consigned black neighbourhoods to breathing some of America’s dirtiest air, drinking contaminated water and living in food deserts.
Black people account for 25 percent of those who have tested positive and 39 percent of the COVID-related deaths, while making up just 15 percent of the general population.”- Capitol Weekly of May 4 2020.
It is evident that post-slavery blacks still lack a sense of belonging in America.
Black people have been deemed to have shifted from submissiveness to harshness in their effort to fend for themselves and this has doubled the unrelenting cruelty they suffer from those who feel to be above them.
Human dignity and freedom nurture citizenry and social fabric that promotes quality of life and contributes to all forms of human advancement and development, is what America preaches, foaming on the mouth, but never practices.