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A just cause

FeaturesA just cause

June 10, 2020– The first Africans were brought to North America as slaves in ships way back in 1619. They did not choose to come here; they did not want to come here. What became known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade was undoubtedly the most horrific era of human history. Ships set sail from Europe with rum, guns, and other merchandise to Africa. From Africa, human cargo was loaded and transported to the Americas. Finally, from America, sugar, tobacco, cotton, and other raw materials were transported back to Europe. This vicious cycle of human trafficking and looting was repeated for almost 200 years.

The infamous Middle Passage was the transportation of enslaved Negroes from Africa to America. During this voyage, the Negro was subjected to harsh treatment, which included unsanitary living conditions, hunger, malnutrition, overcrowding, the lack of exercise, family separations, beatings, lynching, suicide, and murder. By the time the Slave Trade ended around 1807, over 12 million Negroes had been shipped to the Americas. It is estimated that at least 12.5% of them died during this voyage.

Slavery in the United States was the legal trade of Africans and African-Americans that existed from the beginning of the nation until 1865. The Negro families were constantly torn apart by this trade. Under the law, an enslaved person could have been bought, sold, or given away. The slave had no voice in deciding when or to whom he or she would be sold. There are many documented, heart-rending stories of mothers unleashing piercing screams as their child is ripped from their arms at a slave auction. Sometimes the owners would agree to trade entire families. Sometimes they would choose to do otherwise. The Negro had to live with the perpetual fear of the indefinite separation from their loved ones.
Slaves played an integral part in the building of the American Nation. They did most of the heavy lifting, so to speak. They tilled the soil, working in the cotton, tobacco, sugar, and rice fields. They were also instrumental in the construction of several landmarks such as The White House and US Capitol Building, Wall Street, Harvard Law School, and Georgetown University.

Slavery was finally abolished in the United States between 1863 and 1865. This was made possible by the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution by Republican president Abraham Lincoln. During the Reconstruction Period that preceeded slavery, the Negro was given very little economic opportunities. So while the Negro was no longer in physical bondage, they were still in psychological and economic bondage. Some argue that we may still be suffering from the inherent psychological effects of slavery on our forefathers.

In the next one hundred years of American history, we see the Negro being tormented by the passage of Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation. Under these laws, the Negroes were not allowed to use the same facilities that White folks did. White kids and Negro kids couldn’t play together. These laws affected just about every aspect of life, from public transportation to the way we attended schools. They determined how we socialized, be it in parks, restaurants, or beaches. They dictated how banking was conducted, the neighborhood they lived in, and even whom they were allowed to marry. Just about everywhere you’d go, some signs said “Whites Only” or “Colored Only”. There was one standard for Whites and another for the Negroes. It was a struggle that gave birth to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ’60s.

The Civil Rights Movement was a struggle for equal rights and justice by the Negroes in America. The movement began in December of 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Some gains made by this struggle include the desegregation of public schools, prohibition of discrimination in public places, prohibition of employment discrimination based on race, sex or religion, protection of minority voting rights, and provision for equal housing opportunities. There were countless marches and riots. There were many bombings of Negro homes and churches. Many gave their lives during this struggle, including great Black leaders such as Malcolm X, Hubert Lee, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today, about fifty years after the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement, there is still systemic racism and inequality in the United States. The Negroes are still oppressed. Equality and justice exist in theory, but in reality, most communities are still segregated. Residential segregation is still real in America today. The system makes it so challenging for blacks to move out of the ghettoes. Schools are still separate and still unequal, for the most part. Most blacks have no other choice but to attend the inner city schools. There is a segmented labor market, with occupational segregation, where blacks are more than likely to end up in lower-paying and unstable jobs. So, we see that today, in America, segregation is perpetuated using social, legal, and economic pressures. It is all a part of a deliberate and interconnected system.

Racial profiling and police brutality are another factor that negatively affects the quality of life of African Americans in the United States today. It is bad enough that Blacks are targeted as suspects when a crime is committed, but more abhorrent is the common use of excessive force by the Police Department. Statistics show that although blacks make up only about 12% of the population, they are three times more likely to be killed by police than white folks. Blacks are understandably concerned, fearful, frustrated, and angry at this time.

Too many innocent black lives have been taken over the past decade. Imagine young Trayvon Martin, killed after leaving a store with Skittles, Arizona Tea, and a hoodie on. Eric Garner was killed by officers who attempted to detain him for selling loose cigarettes. Michael Brown was shot in the street by a police officer. That officer was never charged. Laquan McDonald was shot sixteen times by another police officer. Walther Scott was killed after he was pulled over for having a broken brake light. Freddie Gray was arrested in Baltimore and charged for possession of a knife. He died while being transported in a police van. Philando Castille was fatally shot during a traffic stop in St. Paul, Minnesota. Botham Jean, a 26-year-old accountant, was killed in his own home in Dallas, Texas, by a female officer who claims she mistakenly entered the wrong apartment and thought Jean was an intruder.

On May 25, 2020, at around 9:00 p.m., George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by police for allegedly purchasing cigarettes with a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill. In this gruesome murder, caught on camera, a Caucasian police officer, Derek Chauvin, is seen with his knee on Floyd’s neck for an initial five minutes and fifty-three seconds as Floyd repeatedly yells “I can’t breathe”. What is even more troubling is that notwithstanding Floyd becoming unresponsive after five minutes and fifty-three seconds and bystanders yelling at him to stop, Chauvin kept his knees on Floyd’s neck for another two minutes and fifty-three seconds. Floyd was pronounced dead at 9:25 at the Hennepin County Medical Center.

In the aftermath of Floyd’s murder, demonstrations began in Minneapolis and then quickly spread to cities across the United States. The protests began peacefully, but some became violent, with the burning of buildings and police vehicles, and looting of some stores. In a show of solidarity, demonstrations have also spread to major cities around the world. The common demand is for an end to police brutality and racial injustice.

The pain runs deep, the wounds are fresh once again. Their cause is a just one. George Floyd died a martyr for racial justice. May his soul Rest in Power.

(Ed. NOTE: We need to point out that most of the violence and looting were not done by the original protesters. This mayhem was the work of a number of other groups with different agendas, some political, who infiltrated and took over the protest, using the opportunity to further their own goals. The infiltration and takeover of the legitimate protest is a story by itself.)

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