Unquestionably, we are living in a very challenging time. Challenging not just because of COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed over 100,000 lives with severe impact in communities of color.. This new racial tension emanating from what many in the communities of color see as premeditated acts of brutality and killing black men is more like adding flames into a burning fire.
As if that is not enough, we have been entrusted into yet another racial conflict which some prejudge to be a byproduct of man’s inhumanity to man and nonchalance to embrace one another with love. It beats me hollow we have not turned the page on our dark history of centuries ago. Are we all no longer special in God’s sight anymore?. Are we not All created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights such as life, liberty and pursuit of happiness?
There is no need to recount the litany of cases of abuse,brutality and death of innocent civilians of Afro-American persuasion in the hands of police, who as an organ of law-enforcement should be the protector and not causing the asphyxiation of unarmed and defenseless civilian irrespective of unfounded presumptions. After all, guilt or innocence in a the judicial system can be substantiated in court of law where you have due process and fair hearing.
Unfortunately, countless of these cases of police brutality and manhandling of presumably unarmed civilian especially when captured in video is enough evidence to cause folks to say enough is enough and to start asking for swift justice, anger can inflame passion when the justice system act as if capitulating to political wind. As you know, in the heat of such moments and with passion all but inflamed, it would seem as if silence is another way to delay the inevitable. And some begins to wonder whether “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
In most instances, the voices of reason and sanity need to prevail or amplified at this juncture and reminding us about what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”.
However, in the final analysis, sanity must prevail. Leaders and custodians of democracy must collectively rise up, unequivocally denounce and reject racism including any other forms of human oppression. As that is done, serious community conversations must begin to address the cancer of inequality which has eaten deep into the fabric of the nation. As this done, appropriate corrective measures must begin to be implemented to help address legal and constitutional infringements.
Let peace reign !
Dr. George Onuorah is the author of “The Political Diary of A Rising Son, and commented in Newsweek of June 7, 2008 Tackling the Delicate Issue of Race
