In Today's News: "Police fatally shot a black man, mistaking his pipe for a gun" --Welcome to the USA!
Reading this sad news (and not wishing to be too, too inflammatory) I thought this headline might serve as a kind of summary of rotten state of race relations in the United States--for the past century or two. Black lives still don't matter, enough, so much so that there is a counter movement, All Lives Matter, embodied by the 'new' white supremacy that resents having given Obama, a black man, a chance--and is courted by the current American president who traffics in such division and hate.
Predictably, there were protests after this latest incident occurred (just a few hours ago) and it's not a stretch to imagine that the police officers may walk free, as others before him have, and that this will further inflame race issues and mutual mistrust. How far we are from Martin Luther King's Dream, 50 years after his assassination, and the lie that is being sold to us about living in a post-racial society.
Here's a rare interview with Dr. King where he confesses: My Dream Has Turned Into A Nightmare. It's sad to see how little has changed, since...
Racism and violence are difficult and complicated matters to untangle in the American psyche and, if you ask me, it's all connected. Why, we might ask for ourselves, is a war being waged in the streets of this country, with Israel Security Forces Training American Cops?! This is why, I believe, we should care as much about the wars fought on our streets, as those being fought in foreign lands.
Otherwise, if we think what we do in the larger world does not matter, we find ourselves confronted with gun violence at home, police brutality, the open wound of race relations, or the plaintive cry – as old as the creation of this nation – of Indigenous Americans at Standing Rock. Or physically and psychologically damaged war veterans, homelessness, uprootedness, refugees, ISIS – all terrorists in the shape of our shadows, all side-effects of the pandemic of indifference.
But, back to the issue at hand of Black Lives Mattering, a few words by Langston Hughes--poet, activist and leader of the Harlem Resistance (1920's)-- are in order:
Sweet and docile,
Meek, humble, and kind:
Beware the day
They change their mind.
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore —
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over —
like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load. Or does it explode?
To read more about Hughes, please, visit The Academy of American Poets
(Image of protesters: Kevin Hagen/AP)
I fear for my grandchildren, whose father is Liberian, and the little ones are obviously not Caucasian. In 2016 their mother, while very noticeably pregnant with the first one, had eggs thrown at her from a passing car, because she was walking down Hartford, CT, with - gasp! - a man whose color doesn't match hers. In this day and age, I never dreamed our daughter would be physically accosted and shouted at on the east coast. If this were small-town down South, maybe, but Hartford? Yahia, thank you for this post.
Oh, I’m very sorry to hear it, dear Carol... We’re not quite ourselves when we’re maddened by fear — gone is respect, grace, good manners — in their place, a beast unleashed.
But, I believe the younger generation are wiser than we are, especially, regarding things like race and gender; they do not see the lines that their elders so sharply demarcate...
For that, there’s reason to Hope 🙌🏼 Sending much love your way ✨♥️
The militarization of our police, the police’s broad criminalization of society in general, the corporatization of prisons and justice, turning our schools into fortresses with “resource officers” who seem to think they are wardens of inmates rather than guides and protectors of children, a narrative pushed by privileged extremists… [sigh]
I fear for the safety of my son and almost despair for the future.
Terribly beautiful response, in that you said all I could hope to say, but better. Recently, I learned that ISRAEL SECURITY FORCES ARE TRAINING AMERICAN COPS, Why on Earth? What war are we in that we're taking to the streets?!
Heaven help us
_/|\_That’s nuts!
It is sickening, the state of this country and yet so many still insisting its the GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH. Ummmm...no.
Great post, although the topic just makes me feel so much impotent rage and frustration.
Never quite understood the insistence on American Exceptionalism with all the problems they have...
But, they’re young (full of themselves, that way) & have a might makes right mentality...
Hopefully, things don’t get too much worse, before they get better 🙏🏼
I strongly condemn this coward action by the Police and request from the authorities to investigate the issue with a just eye.
Hughes has brilliantly describe the situation of Negros
Thanks Yahia Brother for highlighting the cruel issue.
It's a tough situation, Salman, and, if you ask me, it's all connected. We should care as much about the wars fought on our streets, as those being fought in foreign lands. As MLK said: Injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere.
I can never hear enough of Langston Hughes. I don't want to see this explode. My prayers are with America. Thank you for sharing my brother @yahialababidi
Oh, I don't want to see it explode, either, but in the words of a Palestinian poet (who should know a thing or two about systemic injustice): Do not fear what is blown up. If you must, fear the unexploded. --Suheir Hammad
Peace, one hopes, all ways
_/|\_Wow...
Yes with reverence
Peace
This is really sad
Tell me about it...
So sad news.
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