There’ve been violent clashes between whites and African Americans over the decades, but the idea that black America would rise-up en masse is a preposterous proposition in most people’s minds. Absolutely unthinkable!
President Barack Obama has assured the nation that America will not return to ‘60s-era race riots, but I fear he may be indulging in wishful thinking. The past is generally seen as an indicator of the future. However, we live in a very different world from that of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm-X when people of color fought against segregated cafes, buses, bathrooms and schools. They were courageous pioneers. They laid the ground stones of the road to equal rights, but neither they nor those who came after succeeded in stamping out ingrained racist attitudes.
For one thing, a heightened respect for civil liberties has raised expectations. Whatever their skin color, people won’t be pushed around without pushing back. Americans today are aware of their rights and will pursue them fiercely. It’s unfortunate, too, that unless someone has a badge on their chest reading “I am a mass murderer” he or she can keep an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons in their home.
But, most importantly, disgruntled individuals can reach out to thousands, if not millions, of like-minded souls on social media whose power to galvanize sectors of populations everywhere is proven. Thanks to the advent of mobile phone cameras, unjust acts, which used to be buried under the radar, often come to light.
The fatal shooting of a motorist in Minnesota, while he was reaching for his wallet to show his ID to a police officer and the killing of a black man in Louisiana were both captured in all their gory detail on video. The police officers concerned have been suspended pending probe but when juries are usually overwhelming white, uniformed killers are rarely sentenced.
Like many such incidents before them, these have sparked protests around the country that have mainly been peaceful. But if the status quo is allowed to continue to the detriment of African American communities, will they stay that way?
The shooting of 11 police officers in Dallas, Texas by 25-year-old former Army reservist Micah Xavier Johnson was written-off by the president as the action of “a deranged gunman.” Describing a killer as “insane”—unless he happens to be a Muslim of course, when he is automatically judged to be a terrorist—may be a convenient way to pinhole this attack as a one-off, but it’s disingenuous.
There is no indication Johnson was a madman and he had no criminal record. He was a very angry man whose sympathies lay with The New Black Panthers Party and The African American Defense League. During conversations with the police negotiator he admitted wanting to kill whites and especially white police officers. His anger is not surprising; the way in which he dealt with it is shocking, but who’s to say there aren’t others out there tempted to take the same route! Whenever there is mass mobilization, rage intensifies and emotions run riot. Injustice is toxic and unless something is done to change the culture within the police and a determination to hold trigger-happy officers to account, the fury felt by African American communities may one day spiral out of control.
On paper much has been achieved since those days when the hooded, cross-burning Klu Klux Klan had its heyday. US laws do not distinguish between black, white and Latino and in theory African Americans enjoy the same opportunities as whites. That being said justice is administered by human beings often under the sway of their own prejudices. Police officers are three times more likely to kill black suspects than whites, according to CBS News. A Guardian daily probe differs; it pegs the rate at 5–1 and affirms that more than 1,700 civilians have died during encounters with the police over the past 18 months. Many were unarmed; some little more than kids. It’s well known that sentences meted out to black Americans are on average far longer than those given to whites for the same crime.
America has a mixed race president and it cannot be denied that the political, judicial, media, military and security arenas exemplify diversity. But hard facts tell a different story. America cannot be assessed as a whole on the basis of a minority of high achievers who reached the pinnacles of their professions.
Many parts of the nation are virtually ghettoized. Young black children in subsidized housing “projects” grow up economically, educationally and socially disadvantaged many in one-parent families existing from pay check to pay check. The fabled American Dream is a stretch too far for them. The US is far from being a nation of equals and unless this is recognized and corrected, hatred will flourish in fertile soil.
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
The race war is being fomented by the govt. As with the 60s, the FBI and related alphabet soups are using agent provocateurs to foment civil unrest and to sabotage and discredit groups like Black Lives Matter (BLM). Today’s provocateur pushers also include global street revolution czar George Soros who along with the Democrats has co-opted and bankrolls BLM. The recent spate of shootings have the smell of false flag. Many power players benefit from the upheaval most notably Killary Clinton who needs massive black voter turnout to insure a win in November; Republican power brokers who prefer Killary over Trump who will be tied to the racial unrest; and the empire in general for which a race war provides more ammunition to cement further police state legislation. The powers that be have succeeded in the current race war initiation as the recent spate of shootings has caused fear and anger and have provided the perfect distraction from the jobless, wage stagnated economy and 24/7 war – issues that the empire does not want to address.