My Mum of blessed memory used to say there are some people whose heads are very strong spiritually and if you go touch them, you would be dealing with your own undoing. In my own culture, prayers are said for new born babies by an old uncle or old Aunty, may his head be strong like Kolanut and may he be protected by his ancestors. If the truth be told, if the police officers accused of murdering George Floyd in Minneapolis have gotten away with bad behaviour, shootings and derogatory language for too long, the spirit of George Floyd, his ancestors and his head, strong like a Kolanut, has finally caught up with them.
Floyd, an African American was arrested by the Minneapolis policemen for presenting a fake $20 bill which the owner of the grocery store has said Floyd may not have been aware was fake. He was wrestled down and one of the policemen Chauvin pinned him down, knee on neck style, and he died. As it so happened Social Media did its thing. By last week Minneapolis was at boiling point with protests and with property being set ablaze because of one senseless policeman and his colleagues, a whole city is being destroyed while everyone is looking to re-jig a floundering economy in the face of COVID-19. Other cities in America have joined the protest as has many countries around the world. This is truly insane.
It’s also amazing to see whites and Hispanics and some police officers join in the protests while trying to calm other protesters. Floyd’s family has called for calm and no violence. The mayor of Minneapolis slowed before he began to react. By the way, the policeman involved in the Floyd case who has now been arrested, has had seventeen complaints against him in his 19-year career including shootings and derogatory language. In between all of this he was given a medal by his employers. Truly bizarre!
A week before, a black birdie who was birdwatching in a designated park in the United states had asked a white woman to put her dog on a leash and she refused and said she was going to call the police and tell them a black man was threatening her. In the furore that ensued, he filmed her saying so and it went viral. Not only did she lose her job, she also lost the dog because in the viral video, she is seen dragging the dog by its collar almost strangling the dog instead of putting it on the leash as requested. By the way those are the rules of the park.
Again, last week, a white man calls the police on his co-tenants who are black demanding to see their identity and permission to use the gym, which is open to all tenants. He has now lost his lease because property administrators consider his action racist. His excuse, he felt that the black men were threatening. You might just be walking past and a white man or woman decides just because of the colour of your skin that you are threatening. Racism has been living with us since the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Since moving thousands of black Africans across the Atlantic for slave labour, African Americans have been facing institutional racism for the longest and many demeaning unspeakable things and killing them at will or arresting them with no proof is what black America is still dealing with in the 21st century. You are suspected of being a thug, a thief and a low-level person just because you are black.
I remember many years ago in London when I tried to get accommodation as a Masters student at City University when most of the student accommodation had been taken. I came in as a late entry. I pounded the phones so I could get a decent studio flat to stay in. One afternoon, I called a number I found on the student’s notice board and a lady answered. We chit chatted and it was pleasant. She then invited me to come and look at the property. When I arrived, she was shocked that I was black. My conversation with her gave her the impression that I was somewhat white or coloured and peeping through her kitchen window she would not open the door. Really? Really!
These types of behaviour are inexcusable and unacceptable. For years, many African American populations and black neighbourhoods all over the world are underserved and held under the glare of suspicion by citizens and governments alike. And long after the slave trade was abolished, there are still racially driven members of the white population who cannot see black people as equals or even as humans and continue to profile them and treat them like dirt. Recall that in an unsubstantiated and controversial story in the 70’s it was thought that to destroy the very core of African Americans, there was a covert intelligence operation by an arm of the United States to flood black neighbourhoods with psychotropic drugs in order to weaken them and reduce their right based attitudes.
It is truly sad. We are not out of the woods yet and Minneapolis is a tip of the iceberg of what is going to come. Racism will be higher, domestic violence is already rising and depression is creeping back into our societies
In the end those drugs found their way from black streets to white streets leading to a major national crisis in the early seventies and still dogging a lot of American communities today. There are also many stories of how black and Hispanic youths especially victims of drug abuse who are cleaned up cold turkey are sent to fight wars on behalf of their country while many underprivileged families have been subjected to dangerous tests of new drugs without being told of the harmful effects in the long run. Pawns, Guinea pigs and discriminated against in a country that propagates freedom as its mantra.
Young African Americans doing well and determined to stay free of crime are described as sell outs and wannabes by their kith and kin while the other side of the population are increasingly maltreated. The anger leads to confrontation and the jailhouse becomes their home. Being black outside Africa is a hard nut, catch 22 position where any pathway is already a no-win situation.
This is why my friend in Australia living in a predominantly white neighbourhood in order to give his children a good life ends up having his children discriminated against in their school. They are two black boys in a sea of white children. Uncomfortable on both sides of the aisle. It’s difficult for them so he brings them home every year so they can see their racial cousins, all of Nigeria is black. The kids are often beyond happy.
As the pandemic ravages on, destroying economies, the pressure on jobs is going to go out of hand and immigrants will begin to fill the pinch. The first line of increased aggression from citizens especially the white population will be the immigrant population. With COVID-19 caring little about race or social status every pain derived from this pestilence will be re-visited on a race different from theirs.
It is truly sad. We are not out of the woods yet and Minneapolis is a tip of the iceberg of what is going to come. Racism will be higher, domestic violence is already rising and depression is creeping back into our societies. Facing a pandemic is hard but I would rather stay home in my country than face these people whose heads have been wrapped in racism since they were two years old. Unacceptable! But pray, where will the African American go?
