By Shahri Estakhry
“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” Benjamin Franklin
Well, I’m still around and in a greater state of disbelief than I was last month, wondering where on Earth am I? With the emerging videos of police violence, the three words “I Can’t Breathe” now has a deeper meaning for many, including myself, who up until now have been privileged in our interactions with the police. The air of injustice is too thick to breathe!
I sat in my chair and witnessed, in a video shared millions of times on-line, a police officer sitting on the airway of another man, slowly suffocating him for 6 minutes until he died, and then continuing to sit on his airway with his hand in his pocket for an additional 3-4 minutes. The world saw the execution of a human being by the hands of those who were supposed to protect him.
Someone said “one stupid decision led to all of this” and was corrected by this answer: “on the contrary…it’s hundreds of years of white privilege that have led to this moment.” Imagine a sector of humanity feeling they have special privileges because of the color of their skin. What an ignorant notion.
For me, what happened in 1962 and the cruel incident after incident forced on the African-American community is as vivid as the recent Minnesota incident. Renowned civil rights leader the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said: “Our lives begin to end the day we became silent about things that matter.” That was our mistake for keeping silent.
From day one, when it was decided that we wanted a nation on the grounds of this land, already inhabited by others, and built up with slave labor, it was an unjustified system. Slaves, having been kidnapped and stolen from their countries, having survived the notoriously brutal Middle Passage from West Africa, having been being sold as human chattel in public markets, were forced to carry the heavy burden of building a new land. That is when inequitable and brutal treatment of Black people in this country started. Since then it has been non-stop and with evolving systems of racism that our country perpetuated the racial wealth gap. The result has been tremendous inequities in education, work opportunities and advancement, health outcomes, housing, and the policing of communities. All in the name of democracy.
If you are living in this country and have never taken the time to learn about the history of this country, maybe this would be a good time to do so. Time to read and learn and speak out for equality. Time to stand up for what is right for humanity and to be proud to be part of that humanity. Don’t think these protests are going to be over soon. This is just the start. The young generations have been showing themselves to be active in organizing for equal justice and respect for all. They are not satisfied with what our generation accomplished and they demand more.
In 1967, the aforementioned Dr. King gave a speech at Stanford University, and his words still ring true today:
“I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over that last few years. It has failed to hear the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so, in a real sense, our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.”
