There was a moment soon after the horror of the video of the Minneapolis police officer pressing his knee on the neck of George Floyd which invoked the memory of Congressman John Lewis and others being beaten back by the police in Selma, Alabama almost 55 years ago. The latter hit the conscience of the nation and it was followed by legislation and significant changes in how African Americans were treated in the South.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com
This too is a similar moment in our history. Yet there is an absence of unified leadership that can potentially seize this moment of national horror and goodwill to ask for and achieve similar significant changes. There is, however, a sharp contrast in the current protest marches from ‘60s civil rights marches. The protesters then were largely peaceful and violence was unleashed on them by the police and some racist elements from the general public.
The protesters now are also largely peaceful and it is nice to see young people from all races again getting involved in social movements. Unfortunately, the protesters are being used by “looters”, arsonists and anarchists. Looters are using the protesters as frontline troops to cause disruption and chaos to break into stores and businesses. Sadly most of the businesses thus affected are owned by minorities and serving already underserved parts of the cities. Many of these minority-owned small businesses were struggling from the loss of business due to Covid-19 and many among them will not be able to recover after looting.
The situation is being made worse in some places with anarchists seizing the moment to create chaos. These anarchist groups, Antifa and others, are professional militants who are trained to throw bombs, light fires and create all-around chaos. Antifa groups are the counterpart of the white supremacist groups in ideology but use similar violent techniques. Their agenda is very different from the protesters and their actions negatively impact the broad support among the public needed to bring about meaningful changes.
If real progress is to be achieved, leadership among the protesters must condemn the actions of the looters and arsonists. They should identify and work with the police, if necessary, to apprehend these criminals and effectively stop them from using the protesters as cover and shield to commit criminal acts. This must be done before the protesters start losing support.
With the passing of Congressman John Lewis, it is time for a younger generation of African American and Hispanic leaders to step forward and clearly put forward a list of doable demands. They may include –
- Not defunding the police but more practically a police which is more accountable to the community. This will require community leaders to co-share with the police the final responsibility of ensuring the safety of their community members.
- Provide equal access to quality education and economic opportunity. It will take a series of steps to dismantle the current real estate tax based school funding and zip code determining your probability of success in life.
- One can also make a legal and moral case for reparations but broad general support for reparations currently does not exist. In the current Covid-19, induced economic depression funding for equitable reparations may not even be possible.
Finally, the current protest movement is lacking leadership who can clearly articulate the case for change and come up with viable solutions. If not, this moment for change will be lost.
Well said. No one should promote violence. Additionally, destroying public property, dismantling statues and damaging our history will not bring any notable change. We the Asians sometimes fall through the crack. There is no community leadership. Economic breakdown with COVID-19 has created snowball effect. People need to go back to work and create their own safe environment that we are fully capable of. Eat right, exercise and staying safe, one can overcome fear of Corona. People need people, human touch is essential for survival. One cannot live in isolation, nor can we work from our bedside and be productive indefinitely.
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