The death of George Floyd has sent shockwaves throughout the United States leading to riots in many states. George Floyd a black American Citizen died after a police officer reportedly kneeled on his neck for around eight minutes. The image of white police officers kneeling on a black man who dies as he struggles for his last breathe has united many black people in many states in the United States who have taken to the streets to complain and show solidarity to one of their own.
From the days of Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali, the World’s superpower does not seem to heal from the effects of hatred and civil war centered on racism. From the days of the slave trade until now there has been a drastic change in the perception of white people towards the black. However, while there are many whites who know that the color of your skin does not make much of a difference, many black people do not feel they are regarded on the same page as the whites.
You may not need to hear statistics on COVID-19 to know how some whites in hospitals have turned black people away when they are trying to access medical care. The same is also true as eight out of ten causes of death in the USA. The life expectancy of blacks is relatively three years shorter than that of the whites. Living standards of the blacks could also be the cause of this but they is a feeling that blacks are subjected to slow and silent environmental dangers like lead in walls and pipes and schools of a lower standard.
There is also the feeling that blacks are victims of ‘over-policing’. For instance, a majority of the arrests during the COVID-19 outbreak over social distancing are either Latinos or blacks. It is not a surprise to see a white person not arrested for a crime they commit to a black or a black arrested just because a white said, “he is harassing me!”
The reason many blacks are out there protesting is that this act of racism is just a reminder of many other brutal crimes that have been committed against the black people by the police. This is especially painful as white police officers are the ones who commit these crimes. These riots have gone on amid the global COVID – 19 pandemics. It seems the black community feels racism if a far worse catastrophe that the novel coronavirus itself.
Looking at Africa black, bar South Africa, people do not hate the white people or the Latinos or any other skin-colored people, instead, they view them as a good company. It is commonplace to find a white person given directions to their destination by a black person and attacks on tourists as a result of racism are unheard of. The only tensions that existed are those attributed to colonialism.
America has made great discoveries in technology and is one of the most industrialized nations in the world but racism is a historical problem she is yet to solve. It is time for all people of all skin colors to look at themselves in the mirror and see what they have done wrong to make this vice a continued problem 401 years since the first slaves arrived on the shores of the great country. Americans both black and white should take the long path of healing and reconciliation. Let every person respect another and live together in harmony side by side without racism. Peace, love, and harmony regardless of gender, skin color, ethnicity, and religious belief. Surely what started in Minneapolis and has now spread to other states is not part of the American dream.