The invasion of America by the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the American landscape in ways never expected. The more than 150,000 deaths throughout America have been devastating for families where a father, a mother, grandparent or child has died.
The heroic fight against this lethal virus has cast a spotlight on people of color serving as physicians, infectious disease experts, journalists, elected officials, first responders, and those who have served on the front line, often heroically with little regard for their safety. The recognition that African Americans have been disproportionately affected and died in this pandemic has revealed a deeply flawed health care system when it comes to race. The ensuing economic depression falls most heavily on blacks and Hispanics. They are often the first furloughed, the last to be rehired and those with least wealth to tide them over.
The Black Lives Matter movement, formed in response to the death of Trayvon Martin, gained national visibility over the wrongful death of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Recently, the whole world witnessed the video of the excruciating eight-minute and 46- second-police murder of George Floyd. Massive demonstrations erupted across America and overseas against state sanctioned killing of innocent blacks that also took the life of Amaud Arberry while jogging in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in her Louisville home, victim of a “no-knock raid” at the wrong address..
The Black Lives Matter movement has been deeply influenced by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Except for a small number of looters and buildings burned, the thousands of demonstrators have been non-violent. The opportunities of the1964 Civil Rights Act banning discrimination in schools, public accommodations, the workplace and housing, and the 1975 Voting Rights Act have strengthened the power of African Americans in their renewed determination for full equality.
However, there are some differences between today and 60 years ago. This movement is taking a deeper look at systemic racism in police departments, health care systems, education, political parties and the racist version of American history that skips over slavery and casts those who fought to preserve it as heroes. The movementis more powerful. Black leaders have the support of others from their community who now hold positions of power in government, business, politics, sports, the arts and television and print journalism. This time they are not as alone. The numbers of whites, young and old, men and women, who fill the ranks of Black Lives Matter demonstrations signal there is broader support today for embracing a more diverse and equal America.
This November, the leader of the free world, will seek a second term as a supporter of the American Confederacy. He will lose. Yet millions of Americans will cast a vote for him and a way of life that is quickly passing.
This brings to mind the letter from Uncle James Baldwin to his 15-year-old nephew of the same name about the lessons of history seen from a black perspective.
- You were born and raised in love by your family. You are loved.
- The condition of the life you were born into was determined by one factor. You are black. That means that you are viewed as “worthless” and must settle for “mediocrity.”
- You are not the problem. You are not inferior. The problem is their “inhumanity and fear.”
- White people are “trapped in a history (of superiority) that they do not understand.” Their world is fragile, so when blacks achieve and prosper, their world is shaken at its core. When they realize the error of their beliefs, they find it hard to act because action invites criticism and rejection.
- Their frailty inspires compassion rather than hate.
- vThough life will be hard, you are of “sturdy peasant stock, men who picked cotton, dammed rivers, built railroads, and in the teeth of the most terrifying odds, achieved an unassailable and monumental dignity.”
Tags: Black Lives Matter, Race
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