I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I’ve been running ever since
It’s been a long time, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
Sam Cooke – A change is gonna come
According to texts Sam Cooke, who was initially a gospel music veteran had been inspired by the 1963 protest song by Bob Dylan “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and felt compelled to write a song that spoke to his struggle and of those around him, and that pertained to the Civil Rights Movement and African Americans. That gave a birth to “a change is gonna come” on which Cooke sang that ‘it’s been too hard living, but he is afraid to die because he doesn’t know what’s up there, beyond the sky.
Triggered by long-standing grievances such as police insensitivity and brutality, inadequate educational and recreational facilities, high unemployment, poor housing, and high prices during the 1960s the USA’s predominantly African American inner cities were swept by unplanned outbreaks of violence.
In 1964 African Heads of State and Government, at the then Organization of Africa Unity’s first assembly meeting held in Cairo, reaffirmed the existence of discriminatory practices as a matter of deep concern and urged the government authorities in the United States of America to intensify their efforts to ensure total elimination of all forms of discrimination based on race, color, or ethnic origin.
More than half a century later, following the death of an African American man named George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the hands of law-enforcement officers on 25 May 2020, the African Union Commission Chairperson recalled the historic OAU Resolution on Racial Discrimination in the USA to ‘reaffirm and reiterate the African Union’s rejection of the continuing discriminatory practices against black citizens in the USA’.
A United Nations dossier on vulnerable people says for centuries, people of African descent living in the African Diaspora were marginalized as part of the legacy of slavery and colonialism. As to the text there is a growing consensus that racism and racial discrimination have caused people of African descent to be relegated in many aspects of public life, they have suffered exclusion and poverty and are often “invisible” in official statistics.
The mode of racism card on African descents kept to be drawn even during exciting times like in 1970s when many African nations had achieved independence, and with that came a deep sense of dignity, self-respect and hope for the future. Some say there has nothing been changed in the US even thought a Martin Luther King dream had shine through the presidency of Barack Obama in 2009.
Although it needs to be supported by substantial research findings there is a common perception that the above situation could have contributed for African Americans to deluge into violent criminal activities. However such assumption eventually triggers an ethnic stereotype referring to criminal stereotype of African Americans. And yet this argument may not hold water in terms of demographic comparison as African descents account far less than the total population of the country.
Here if we take racism beyond the notion of moral psychology, some in the leftist political spectrum would put it as a fundamental political concept. They argue manifestations of racism are an expression of a society’s hierarchy: a means for a dominant group or elite to maintain its economic and social power. There are in fact many African Americans who don’t buy the idea of victimization mentality leaving the leftists concept and advocating skin color as no matter but a notion of one human race. While others on the right maintain not to call someone a racist but prefer the reference of a racist acts or behaviors because for them these entire situation suggest condemnation of moral character that question a person’s civilization.
Despite solidarity that has been shown across the world against racism on people of African descent through advocating for the promotion and protection of their human rights with some progress, the situation persists like an Elephant behind the curtain, to varying degrees, in many parts of the world. The aforementioned UN dossier says the factors that lead to poverty among people of African descent are mainly structural. Discrimination is apparent in the unequal access these groups have to basic services. People of African descent are often disadvantaged, for example, in access to education, health-care, markets, loans and technology.
Some other experts find it hard to subscribe to either of these views. While racism will have structural qualities, they say it seems puzzling to reject the attitudinal dimensions of racial discrimination. For then, it becomes too easy merely to blame “the system,” whatever that system may be. There can never be any responsibility attributed to racism – we could never hold anyone accountable for racism – because it is all a product of intangible social and political forces.
Those who insist attitudes play no role ignore the power of attitudes in shaping social reality. Zambian Economist Dambisa Moyo who is renowned for her book “Dead Aid” dodges the aid mentality that held Africans way far behind what they could attain for themselves. “We live in a culture of aid. We live in a culture in which those who are better off subscribe – both mentally and financially – to the notion that giving alms to the poor is the right thing to do,” she wrote.
It might seem ironic for an African to be concerned about a black life matter beyond the horizon while endless racial flaws are shading gloomy picture in the continent’s aspiration of building better future. The death of Floyd however coupled with longstanding racial injustice in the US could pose a problem for Washington’s stand as a vocal proponent of human rights across the continent.
The Ethiopian herald June 2,2020
