The first slaves landed on American soil at the hands of their captors in 1619. In 1776, a long 157 years later, the Declaration of Independence stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Nice words, but our country continued to live and thrive on the backs of slaves. Eighty-seven more years of slavery and Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 issued The Emancipation Proclamation. Two more years passed until the Confederacy supposedly surrendered on April 9 1865.
I say supposedly surrendered because ever since then until this day, which is another 155 years later, the Confederacy has done its best to stay alive and subjugate people of color, the effects of which explode every so often when the brutality and injustice of the Confederacy is so blatantly on display as has happened with the merciless, cowardly murder of an innocent, George Floyd. His murderers, so far, are still enjoying their freedom. The Confederates/white supremacists have weaseled their way into power. Many, obviously, are part of the police force who have murdered black men and women with no consequence. People of color are unjustly stopped, questioned, harassed, and arrested without cause. To underline the reason for George Floyd’s murder, witness the arrest of a black CNN reporter and his crew as a white CNN reporter and crew approximately a block away were permitted to carry on reporting.
After George Floyd’s horrific murder captured on film and ensuing riots, the question has been posed, “Why have the protests become violent and destructive?” This should not be a question. Violence and destruction can be the only expected outcome. Four hundred years of the country’s toleration of white supremacy is the answer. The sadness, frustration, and anger of the majority of our citizens has erupted into what you see on the streets of Minneapolis. That is why Minneapolis is burning. Those people are burning down the institutions that are failing them. It’s still the Civil War, and today’s collateral damage are the stores and businesses that may have nothing to do with the power of white supremacy being protested. They did, however, burn a prime target, the police barracks where the murderers were employed.
It’s time that those holding onto their antiquated, loathsome, hateful, villainous notions of white supremacy leave this country. They do not belong here because they do not adhere to the most basic tenet of our democracy, “ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.” If we do not hold the four murderers to the fullest punishment under the law, we are complicit and can only expect more people to act out of frustration as in Minneapolis. When our nation ignores our most sacred belief, and white supremacist notions are expressed all the way to the White House and nothing is done about it through our justice system, our congress, our elected leaders, what other recourse do people have? When our Department of Justice has been corrupted by a white supremacist at the head of our government, what other recourse do people have? When peaceful protests have failed and legal means have always failed in the past, what other recourse do people have?