A series of essays....
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THE CRUELTY OF YESTERDAY BLEEDS INTO THE PRESENT DAY |
Courtesy of History.com
....as seen through my eyes!
By: Jacqueline E Hughes
A System of Western Imperialism From the Genocide of Indigenous American Peoples To African Slavery To the Present Day
The man, a college graduate, currently serving his country in active duty is afraid to get out of his car. Because of his combat training, he realizes he could be under attack by a hostile enemy. He seeks bright lights to stop his vehicle under, rolls down his window, and is reluctant (refuses) to exit his recently purchased SUV—for fear of his life. He is gravely harassed and, as he looks down the barrel of the gun pointed between his eyes, he knows that one false move could be his last move in this lifetime. Suddenly, he is wiping the dripping pepper spray from his face. Later, we can see it dripping down his chin onto the fatigues that identify his military status. Even under fear for his life and while having none of his questions taken seriously or answered, he had the wherewithal to record the life threatening incident using his own cell phone planted on the dash of his vehicle prior to his assault.
A young father drives through a residential area with the mother of his two-year-old child in the passenger seat of the white Buick. With flashing lights strobing within the rearview mirror and sirens pounding in their ears, he stops the vehicle along the side of the road and exits it as he is told to do. Whom he perceives as the enemy has them surrounded by now. With physical pat downs and verbal threats, the fear ebbs and flows throughout the young man’s body with the final blow of being shackled with his hands behind his back. All of the horrors he had been told about, all of the reprehensible indignities his Momma and Daddy trained him to handle and endure in his lifetime, floods his brain in those few moments. The genuine possibility of becoming a statistic becomes more pronounced with each deep breath he takes. The adrenaline rush overpowers his perception of time and fear as he launches himself back into the veiled safety of the car, his frightened partner at his side. For this one human emotion, the fear for the safety of your own life, the man is shot. As he sets the car in motion and attempts to rid himself of the pain, history, and his own anxieties, his last breath comes several blocks away and the white Buick becomes is final retreat.
A shiver runs down his spine. Fear of not being obeyed comes in rivulets of sweat along the length of his body and his greasy hold on the leather handle of the bullwhip slips and slides as his body shakes out of his own frustration and genuine feelings of superiority. He yells and shouts his orders and finds it incomprehensible that they are not readily adhered to by his property who stare at him with their own eyes of deep wonderment and fear. He will make them understand. He will make them obey even if it takes a few examples of showing them who’s boss by the process of beating them—. Mustn’t eliminate them. They are expensive property he knows he can’t afford to lose.
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Survival Rules If Stopped By Police Taught To All Black Children
Keep your mouth closed; Be respectful; Do not argue; Keep your hands in plain sight at all times; No sudden movements; Do not run, even if you are afraid; Do not resist arrest; Stay calm and remain in control; Watch your words, body language, and emotions.
Before you can escape injustice, you have to survive injustice.
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Usually, and in the case of the victims in the three true stories narrated above, their darker skin color dictates how they are treated and/or abused.
The feeling of power, the belief that certain people are better than others even though they breathe, bleed, and burn the same as everyone else, is heightened by the legal weapons and laws that people choose to hide behind; how some people choose to lord their organized power over others. An adrenaline rush of power has infected the very institution that was created to serve and protect all who walk the streets of this country we call home.
Even the ‘good’ cops are subjected to the misguided and uninformed abuse of those who care nothing about right or wrong, fiction or reality. The storming of the Capitol Building this past January is proof that the respect for fellow human beings can be completely disregarded when the frenzy of a deluded crowd loses control and attacks the authority of the law.
The slave owner, as does the ‘bad’ cop of today’s world, share this in common: The most important point being the feeling that with either whip or gun in hand, they can emotionally reign over the weaker, far less superior masses they deem unequal to their own all mighty status in life. Projecting fear instead of displaying compassion for those who must abide by the law, our world continues to spin like an uncontrollable top poised between peace and war—for eternity.
Does a bullwhip or a gun and badge alone create this feeling of superiority? Does the sanctity of the institution of slave owners and law enforcement officers elevate the God given rights of one group of people over another? History concludes that this behavior of superiority has been an integral layer of most societies since recorded time. Sadly, that realization alone should serve as a reminder that changing this statistic will be deeply challenging.
Please don’t misunderstand me as I reflect upon our current law enforcement system. In general, I believe that most of the outstanding, motivated men and women enter this profession with good intentions. And, unlike the slave owner who purchases labor in order to run his plantation and create profit without regard to the common necessities of those who labor for him, I feel our police officers generally hold the best interests of the people they serve in mind. Like most groups, politicians included, some officers have been tainted by the power vested in them.
This adverse pattern of policing in this country must be stopped and then—it must be changed.
A definite shift in priorities happens when a person who has been schooled by generations before him to believe that the color of his skin dictates how much power he has over a person with skin different (darker) than his own. That person may grow-up to become the leader of the free world and taunt, display, or give rise to others who harbor identical feelings and now feel free to openly assert their claims in life.
The general push to eradicate any positive influences brought about by people of color within our society by the last administration, served to strengthen the belief that Blacks, all immigrants, Indigenous American peoples (in depth story for another time), and all who consciously choose to, finally, flip history around, will always be inferior to people with white skin. Period.
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John Howard Griffin was a white journalist from Texas who was incessantly curious about what it would be like to be a Black man. He wrote about racial inequality in the Deep South of 1959 in order to see life from the other side of the color line. Darkening his skin through a course of drugs, skin creams, and sunlamp treatments, he shaved his head and spent weeks traveling as a Black man in order to experience the plight of African Americans in the South.
His 1961 publication of his experiences appeared in his best selling novel entitled Black Like Me where he described in detail the problems an African American encountered in the segregated Deep South. Traveling by bus and/or hitchhiking, he describes meeting the needs for food, shelter, toilet, and other sanitary facilities. The hatred he often felt from white Southerners haunted his daily life. However, he was pleased to point out anecdotes about white Southerners who were friendly and helpful.
After the publication of his book, he and his family received death threats, his likeness was hung in effigy, and they moved to Mexico for several months before returning to reside in Texas, once again. Despite lecturing and writing on race relations and social justice, he continued to contribute to racial understanding. In 1975, Griffin was severely beaten by the Ku Klux Klan. He survived.
John Howard Griffin allowed himself, a white man, to experience a version of what it would be like to be Black. However, no one knows better, firsthand, about the fears, loss of hope, and emotional toll of being Black than a person who is born Black.
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Several years ago, I recall how the perception of adopting Black children into a predominately White home was deemed unacceptable by Black Society. I couldn’t understand their reasoning at the time. When dealing with there own lives, Black people’s lives are precarious in the first place. Disallowing their right to grow-up within the basics of their own culture, history, and familiar sense of being grounded may deprive them of even more.
This reaction to Whites adopting Black children stems from the belief that these children will never be able to fully comprehend who they are or where they come from. Their adoptive White parents, even with extensive research and good intentions, will only be able to offer them a skewed look at life and may not be able to completely prepare them for the world’s reaction to their own skin color as they are growing-up or when they eventually leave their protective nests.
Left in a state of limbo and inappropriately trained to cope with life’s realities, these adopted Black children may not be introduced to the applicable survival rules and prominent lessons while they remain young and vulnerable.
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Under cross-examination, Dr. Martin J. Tobin, a pulmonologist and critical care physician, said, “Mr. (George) Floyd died from a low level of oxygen, and this caused the damage to his brain that we see. The low level of oxygen was caused by ‘shallow breathing’ and Mr. Floyd’s prone position and his being handcuffed, and Mr. Chauvin’s knee on his neck and back contributed to the shallow breathing.”
As the trial of ex-police officer, Dereck Chauvin, continues on the death of a Black man, George Floyd, my hands immediately folded into fists of rage and disgust when Dr. Tobin uttered these words to the court, “This tells you he (George Floyd) has used up his resources and is literally trying to breathe with his fingers and knuckles.” This was in reference to Mr. Floyd pushing in on the back tire of the squad car he was pinned up against during the final moments of his life.
As the video illustrated this last action by George Floyd, Dr. Tobin said, “He’s using his fingers and his knuckles against the tire and street to try and crank-up the right side of his chest. This is his only way to try and get air into the right lung.”
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May I repeat: Before you can escape injustice, you have to survive injustice.
For far too long, too many people have lived under the heavy weight of this simple but poignant statement and mantra. It is time for CHANGE to happen—NOW!
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TWENTY-YEAR-OLD MAN, DAUNTE WRIGHT, WHOSE LIFE WAS TAKEN AWAY BY MINNEAPOLIS-AREA POLICE |
Courtesy change.org
Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline E Hughes
All rights reserved
