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George Floyd and Racial Discrimination in America: How Does It Affects Me?
I am sure someone saw the title of this article and was wondering why I am bothered about an event that happened some 10,000 miles away. Well, the issues surrounding race, racism, racial profiling and discrimination as well as police brutality, oppression and corruption are issues that affects every one of us no matter the part of the world we live and the language we speak, the only difference is the way and frequency in which we witness them. It is certain that every Nigerian has a ‘not-so-good’ police story to share as corruption in the police force, military oppression and extra judicial killings are as engrained in the Nigerian society as it is evident in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and everywhere else.
How about racism in our country? Are you from a Yoruba or Muslim family? Please try to tease your parents with the idea of marrying an Igbo or a Christian lady and you might be surprised with the type of response you will get. Moving swiftly on, today’s article would address the issues surrounding race, racism, racial profiling and discrimination, police brutality, oppression, and corruption. We would also look at how we can contribute our quota to end oppression and discrimination based on religion, region, gender, skin color and prejudice.
First, What Really Happened?
On May 25, 2020, at 8:08 p.m., Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers responded to a 9-1-1 call regarding a "forgery in progress". Two officers approached his car and told George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, who according to police "appeared to be under the influence," to exit the vehicle, at which point he "physically resisted."
Moments later, Officer Derek Chauvin placed his left knee in the area of George Floyd's head and neck after he fell to the ground as a result of a scuffle between George and two police officers. Floyd then goes silent and motionless few minutes later. Chauvin does not remove his knee until an ambulance arrives. Emergency medical services put Floyd on a stretcher. Not only had Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for about seven minutes (including four minutes after Floyd stopped moving) but additional two officers had also knelt on Floyd according to a video recording while another officer watched. Medics were unable to detect a pulse, and Floyd was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office also published fake and fraudulent autopsy report on the cause of death the next day in a bid to cover any wrong doing. However, On June 1, a private autopsy commissioned by the family of Floyd ruled the death a homicide and found that Floyd had died due to asphyxiation from sustained pressure, which conflicted with the original autopsy report done earlier that week. George Floyd was buried next to his mother in Dallas, Texas, last week Tuesday. Please note that the minute by minute account of the incident can be accessed on Wikipedia.
History of Race, Racism & Racial Discrimination in The United States
Last Sunday, I was watching the State of the Union anchored by Jake Tapper on CNN and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Department (we refer to them as Ministers here in Nigeria), Dr. Benjamin Carson told everyone what being the only black student in an all-white class was like. He reminisced about how his teachers would insult all the white kids in his class for letting a black kid top the class. However, he noted that the situation has since improved.
The American Psychology Association believes that race has a long and complicated history in the United States. According to research by psychologists and others, prejudice and discrimination are still problems in the American society but this did not start today, there is abundant proof that systemic racism, racial profiling and segregation started more 250 years ago.
An article from Wikipedia, titled: Racism in United States provides interesting details. Racism in the United States has existed since the colonial era, when white Americans were given legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights while these same rights were denied to other races and minorities. European Americans—particularly affluent white Anglo-Saxon Protestants—enjoyed exclusive privileges in matters of education, immigration, voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition, and criminal procedure throughout American history. Non-Protestant immigrants from Europe, particularly the Irish, Poles, and Italians, were often subjected to xenophobic exclusion and other forms of ethnicity-based discrimination in American society until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most importantly, African Americans faced restrictions on their political, social, and economic freedoms throughout much of US history. In several parts of the article, racism against minority groups was extensively addressed but the purpose of this post is to discuss racism, police brutality and how it affects the minority African-Americans.
Two days ago, I was watching Fareed Zakaria’s show on CNN – The Global Public Square and the issue of institutionalized racism in the American police force was extensively addressed. Fareed started with a CBS poll that noted that 57% of Americans believe that police treat whites better than blacks and the same number of people believe that the police are more likely to use lethal force in a dangerous situation involving a black man than a white man according to a survey by the Monmouth University Polling institute.
On the flip side, an article from the Wall Street Journal titled: The Myth of Systemic Police Racism argues that this does not exist and Fareed brought Dr. Philip Atiba Goff, the Co-Founder and CEO of the Center for Policing Equity and a Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice to illuminate a topic he recently discussed in Congress. He started with an explanation of the exceptional situation of things in high crime cities like Chicago, and concluded that there are three levels of potential police bias namely; the individual officers themselves, how police are deployed and the behavior of law enforcement in a given city.
Conclusion
The news of Hushpuppi’s arrest in the United Arab Emirate made headlines sometimes last week and Ogochukwu used the opportunity to remind everyone how they referred to Invictus Obi as an Igbo fraudster when he was arrested by the FBI, he also made a reference to the comment of the Chairman/CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Ewera where she allegedly referred to the Igbos as soiling Nigeria’s image aboard. Around the same time, another unarmed black man – Rayshad Brooks was fatally shot dead in Atlanta, Georgia in a circumstance similar to George Floyd’s.
These two independent events show that racism is evidently present here as well as there and we can stop this with our collective resolve to make our world a better place but first, we need to understand that no one benefits from a hostile and racially charged environment; not the oppressors nor the oppressed. Police brutality and other issues we have addressed in this piece will only stop with our collective resolve to completely eradicate them in our society by taking action against them and educating everyone about the dangers and damages they do to our societies and being our brother’s keeper.
Together, we can make the world a better place.
Oluwole
Olusanya is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of one of the
fastest-growing lifestyle blogs in the country. He is a banker, writer,
blogger, public affairs analyst and a tax consultant. He anchors Trending Topics on SHEGZSABLEZS’ Blog where he shares his thoughts and opinions on trending issues.
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