By Yomi Ogunlola
America went agog this week to celebrate the 155th Anniversary of Juneteenth which marks the abolition of Slavery; albeit, it remains astounding that despite the several affirmative efforts at ending the horrid and systemic dehumanisation of African Americans, demand for racial justice, racial equality and non-racial discrimination continues to make dismal headlines.
Racism is traceable to the colonial era, which sanctioned the legal and social privileges and rights of the Whiteman over and above that of other races and minorities. The victim list includes the Irish, Poles, Italians, Jews, Arabs, African Americans and Blacks generally. Many of these groupings were subject to xenophobic exclusion and other forms of race based discrimination in America.
Over time, racism came to be perceived as being socially and morally unacceptable, thus attracting several correctional legal instruments. For instance, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the US between 1864/5; the 14th Amendment ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalised in the US, inclusive of former slaves, and, it guaranteed citizens equal protection under the law; the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited both the Federal and State Governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on race, colour or previous condition of servitude, and, of course, there is the Civil Rights Act 1875 and subsequent legislation in that behalf.
Despite these laudable instruments, however, exercises in racial extremism, particularly against African Americans and Blacks generally, continue on the rise, especially, with the resurgence of White Nationalist Coalition – the supremacist groupings. A 1993 study by Katz and Braly, indicate that Blacks and Whites hold a variety of stereotypes towards each other, often negative. In August 2017, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a rare warning to the US and its leadership to “unequivocally and unconditionally” condemn racist speech and crime, following violence in Charlottesville during a white supremacist rally.
The unending racially induced extra-judicial killings of African Americans and Blacks generally, have continued, with the recent brutal murder of George Floyd on a mere allegation of misdemeanour. The American Justice System too has proven irresponsive to the call for an end to racially motivated murders of African Americans and Blacks Generally, having returned only one conviction in 15 high profile police shooting deaths of African Americans and Blacks generally.
It would appear that while racial hatred for other races like the Jews, Arabs, Asians, etc., are waning, racial hatred and profiling of African Americans and Blacks generally is on the increase. What could the other races be doing differently?
Just as the Jews, the Arabs and the Asians have taken their destinies in their hands, applying psycho-sociological therapies to tame the racist beast; African Americans must come up with policy options checkmate racism or reduce its effects from behavioural to attitudinal.
African Americans must act as a collective, organising talk-shops for the education of its members on positive effects of cherished values such as education, entrepreneurial skills acquisition, responsible parenting, patronage of African American and Blacks goods and services, etc., and, highlighting the ill consequences of negative behaviour, such as flamboyancy, drugs, hate crimes, on the collective.
Establishment of Advocacy Groups such as the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC); Arab American Institute (AMI); Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), etc., as pressure groups for the protection of the Civil Rights of African Americans and Blacks generally.
To initiate a deliberate policy to increase African American and Blacks representation in Congress from its present 8.7% to 15% in the first 5 years and steadily thereafter. In this wise, there should be a robust policy aimed at increasing the number of African Americans and Blacks, since democracy remains a game of numbers.
African Americans and Blacks generally must begin to invest in their own world-within-a-world: establish African American Banks; African American Free Paying Schools, African American Subsidised Hospitals, and, more investments in the National Black Farmers Association.
Like the Jews, African Americans and Blacks generally need economic power; they must take a more aggressive interest in the activities on Wall Street and the rest of the investment world.
With economic power, social stability and robust political representation, it is hoped that the African American and Blacks generally may begin to command the respect of its partners in the American Project.
Yomi Ogunlola LL.M, B.L
Nigeria.
