Over the course of two centuries, it is the Black community, that has received the most amount of racial segregation. It is these innocent souls who have been slaughtered the most by the country of America and dehumanized by the other parts of the world. After all these years, after decades of protest and after the birth of new tags to add to your posts, it is still this community that suffers greatly, and the case of George Floyd has just highlighted it for this generation.
However, the case of Rodney King is another element to add in the giant ‘Book of Carnage History towards the Black’ from 1991. A harmless construction worker, brutally beaten down by American police officers, was and is another awakening moment in the history of America. Yet why is it so that we only hear about George Floyd, and this man? Why don’t we hear the dying voices of Kimani Gray from 2013, Kendrick McDade from 2012, Natasha McKenna from as late as 2015, and hundreds of Black fighters of this maltreated community?
What truly is frightening is that we don’t even know half the cases of racial segregation around the world. Imagine if you were to go on a trip to your favourite place yet as you arrive, the receptionist tells you you can only stay for one night. Imagine if they were to tell you, ‘we won’t have *expletive* in this hotel’ – because this is exactly what had happened in the case of famous Trinadian cricketer, Learie Constantine, for coming from a different race and having a dark skin color in the city of London.
And why should it take upto August, 2007, to finally criminalize the slavery of Africans in Mauritania? Because half of the world does not even know about this situation, you didn’t either, no one even seems to be fighting for equality yet it is what the Black community is in dire need of. It needs not only each other’s support, but ours to prove their point. This is the society that has faced a massive amount of xenophobia over the years. It is this culture that has fought so bravely throughout all these years, after all this torture, and it needs to come to a halt, and to be treated equally again.
Sign a petition, text important contacts, educate yourself, educate others but most importantly, make it your duty to find justice for these struggling heroes NOW because: #BlackLivesMatter.
Sunhari Jacob (9A)