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Is the life of an unarmed “black” man worth less than that of a “white” man who kills several?
Dear Editor,
A Caucasian man, Robert Bowers, 46, walks into a Jewish synagogue in Philadelphia and kills 11 Jews, shoots four police officers, exits, gets arrested and gets into a police car totally unscathed. On the converse, Black adult or adolescent brandishes a gun (or what is thought to be a gun), reaches for his cell phone, runs or drives away from the police in his car, does not shoot anyone and yet in seconds, he is lying on the ground-shot dead or slumped lifeless in his car. The recent active shooter is not the first non-Black American mass murderer and shooter to be taken alive and unharmed. Let us bring to recall all the school shootings – the young, avowed white supremacist Dylan Roof who killed nine congregants in a predominantly Black church in South Carolina. Remember all of the school shootings? Remember the shooting at Fort Hood military base by Nidal Malik Hasan a United States Army Medical Corps psychiatrist, who killed 13 people and injured more than 30 others. And the list goes on, but all were taken alive and largely unharmed. It is obvious that there is something drastically wrong with these pictures and all the pictures of those shot by police or at least they used to be living. In other words, what the country is basically saying to us is that the life of an unarmed “black” man who kills nobody is still worth less than that of an active shooter “white” man who shoots up a crowd, a school or a synagogue and kills several people?
No the President did not create violence, nor did he pull the triggers of the firearms. Both sides of the political arena have unlocked and promoted a climate of hate and division. The country as a whole falls short of the ability to take responsibility for the racism, discrimination and hate that it has cultivated. However, when America’s chickens come home to roost in white neighbourhoods, everyone is shocked, petrified and alarmed. However, karma and reaping what we have sown applies to us all – including a country. On an ironical note, the manner in which the current President Donald Trump demeans people is the same way Hitler began.
In America, African Americans have repeatedly been the victims in a multiplicity of different ways—from slavery to racism, lynching after lynching, to dogs and horses, profiling, being unarmed yet shot down in the street by police, being insulted for taking a knee to being told our ancestors came from shithole countries, rhetoric that have fueled the action of racists. Then again taking a quick look at the foundations upon which America was built upon, would help us to arrive at an understanding.
When the mother of one of the African Americans wrongfully killed by police called upon people to take action, law enforcement tried to arrest her for inciting violence. Nevertheless, President Trump gets away with praising politicians who body slam reporters and offering to pay legal fees for people at his rallies who commit violence?
Now when Caucasian people, Jewish or not, are shot down in schools, synagogues and outside Vegas hotels by Caucasian products of American racism, White America is losing its mind. Sad to say, but perhaps now they fully grasp the severity of the situation, and understand how Blacks feel every passing day in America. So while Blacks do feel for, and pray for the families of those killed in the synagogue massacre, please forgive us if we do not cry a river. We have almost run out of tears from all those African Americans beaten, hung, incarcerated, burned, falsely accused and murdered in this country for which it stands.
America is not a country that is equal for all. It never has been – at least not for African Americans. And it is a shame that any of us ever have to experience loss to wake up and realize such. The alarm is ringing and how I wish it would stop. But sadly, it probably would not stop until people wake up and turn it off. What do you think? How are Blacks expected to respond?
Same land but a different stand.
Yvonne Sam.
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