When Was America Great?
George Floyd was forty-six years old when he was tortured by police and killed through pressure being put on his neck and repeated injuries to his back. His murderer was almost let off with third-degree murder, with a change in sentence only being caused through protests and pressure put on by the public. Without this, he would’ve been another black statistic left to perish with perpetrators walking away with lenient sentences…
Rosa Parks protested in 1955 for a bus seat, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. did it in 1964 for constitutional change and the death of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 only saw its culprits punished in 2012, with the support of protests 18 years later. Why?
The issue of race in 2020 seems as prevalent as it was 65 years ago and it's baffling why. The death toll of black people through racism and police brutality has soared over the years and the names that make the news are the ‘fortunate ones’ whose legacies will be held up. But thousands perished and became a part of a statistic because they were targeted and killed in private. Black people are three times more likely to be slain than anyone white in the USA despite being less likely armed, with only 1% of their killers being brought to ‘justice’, this being the case in 2020. So I ask what they mean by ‘make America great again’? Why do people even say that phrase or wear the hats despite all of these atrocities? When was it even great?
Let's go back 100 years to when the roaring 20s came to fruition. Ford started production of the Model T and introduced carousel type divisional labour to the masses. Three months wages could buy you a car, you could save and go to a soiree or buy nice things on credit. The American ‘melting pot’ was in full effect. But black people were not privy to a piece of the pie. Lynchings were rife and the KKK, although diminished in size, continued to reign supreme in the south. In Tulsa, the race riots of 1921 saw the death of 26 black people as well as 10 white, all because of skin colour to chase black people out and burn their houses down. The ‘credit’ schemes afforded to other immigrants were still held off from being granted to but a few better-off black people, and those who were stuck in poverty were subject to slavery with a wage insultingly below living standards.
And the reason is clear. Black lives don’t matter to those on top because their ideas of a life worth living is one that got a visa through intelligence quotas, through fitting a criteria before they stepped foot on a plane and those who are the ‘good’ type of immigrant. But they forget those that were put onto boats, chained together like cattle and told to stand in their faeces so that they could be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The idea of a great America or a great Britain simply doesn’t work and is a rhetoric that should be forgotten about. The fact is that Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘Dream’ about sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners mixing is a fallacy because of the privilege built into our soil. It will fail because of the discrimination our flags are sewed together with. It will perish because of every ‘all lives matter’ protest in reaction to ‘black lives matter’. America isn’t, wasn’t and never will be great because of this, because of the need to protest to get someone a prison sentence that they should’ve received in the first place and because amendments alone can't change a constitution founded on racism.
We’re celebrating the fact that protests have so many people coming to them, that there are marches and that we’re bringing change. But I fear that after the momentum of the protests fall, we will engage in the same politics, the same ideologies and the same prejudices as before. It's heartbreaking to see that it's momentous for the police to show solidarity with the black lives matter cause, to see that it's great that the names of the dead are being read out or that protests exist to remind people of oppression. Why isn’t this a given?
65 years removed from the bus boycott, there remains a rhetoric that a black person equates to a criminal. The president of the United States continues to use ‘thugs’ to describe rioters showing anger toward a broken system. There is regurgitation of racist rhetoric being shared by this man from 1967.
The country built by black people and people of colour formed a system against them. It shows solidarity to the issues but indifference in making laws. It waits for people to die rather than keep them alive. It goes as far as to bring a black person into office just to spit on his, and every other black person's legacy quicker than they can put on a 'MAGA' hat. There’s nothing great about America or Britain, their successes were built on the back of those they now look at as criminals, the melting pot they refer to was powered by burning the immigrants they didn’t favour and their hatred is propelled by an archaic notion of privilege based on skin colour.
The change we need is sustained. The countries we want to be great will have to restart instead of building on soiled foundations. The people who refuse to listen will have to be drowned out by the noise of righteousness and prosperity.
Black Lives Matter
Rosa Parks protested in 1955 for a bus seat, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. did it in 1964 for constitutional change and the death of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 only saw its culprits punished in 2012, with the support of protests 18 years later. Why?
The issue of race in 2020 seems as prevalent as it was 65 years ago and it's baffling why. The death toll of black people through racism and police brutality has soared over the years and the names that make the news are the ‘fortunate ones’ whose legacies will be held up. But thousands perished and became a part of a statistic because they were targeted and killed in private. Black people are three times more likely to be slain than anyone white in the USA despite being less likely armed, with only 1% of their killers being brought to ‘justice’, this being the case in 2020. So I ask what they mean by ‘make America great again’? Why do people even say that phrase or wear the hats despite all of these atrocities? When was it even great?
Let's go back 100 years to when the roaring 20s came to fruition. Ford started production of the Model T and introduced carousel type divisional labour to the masses. Three months wages could buy you a car, you could save and go to a soiree or buy nice things on credit. The American ‘melting pot’ was in full effect. But black people were not privy to a piece of the pie. Lynchings were rife and the KKK, although diminished in size, continued to reign supreme in the south. In Tulsa, the race riots of 1921 saw the death of 26 black people as well as 10 white, all because of skin colour to chase black people out and burn their houses down. The ‘credit’ schemes afforded to other immigrants were still held off from being granted to but a few better-off black people, and those who were stuck in poverty were subject to slavery with a wage insultingly below living standards.
And the reason is clear. Black lives don’t matter to those on top because their ideas of a life worth living is one that got a visa through intelligence quotas, through fitting a criteria before they stepped foot on a plane and those who are the ‘good’ type of immigrant. But they forget those that were put onto boats, chained together like cattle and told to stand in their faeces so that they could be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The idea of a great America or a great Britain simply doesn’t work and is a rhetoric that should be forgotten about. The fact is that Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘Dream’ about sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners mixing is a fallacy because of the privilege built into our soil. It will fail because of the discrimination our flags are sewed together with. It will perish because of every ‘all lives matter’ protest in reaction to ‘black lives matter’. America isn’t, wasn’t and never will be great because of this, because of the need to protest to get someone a prison sentence that they should’ve received in the first place and because amendments alone can't change a constitution founded on racism.
We’re celebrating the fact that protests have so many people coming to them, that there are marches and that we’re bringing change. But I fear that after the momentum of the protests fall, we will engage in the same politics, the same ideologies and the same prejudices as before. It's heartbreaking to see that it's momentous for the police to show solidarity with the black lives matter cause, to see that it's great that the names of the dead are being read out or that protests exist to remind people of oppression. Why isn’t this a given?
65 years removed from the bus boycott, there remains a rhetoric that a black person equates to a criminal. The president of the United States continues to use ‘thugs’ to describe rioters showing anger toward a broken system. There is regurgitation of racist rhetoric being shared by this man from 1967.
The country built by black people and people of colour formed a system against them. It shows solidarity to the issues but indifference in making laws. It waits for people to die rather than keep them alive. It goes as far as to bring a black person into office just to spit on his, and every other black person's legacy quicker than they can put on a 'MAGA' hat. There’s nothing great about America or Britain, their successes were built on the back of those they now look at as criminals, the melting pot they refer to was powered by burning the immigrants they didn’t favour and their hatred is propelled by an archaic notion of privilege based on skin colour.
The change we need is sustained. The countries we want to be great will have to restart instead of building on soiled foundations. The people who refuse to listen will have to be drowned out by the noise of righteousness and prosperity.
Black Lives Matter
Amazing read, really inspiring and well written. BLM!!!
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