Two of Milwaukee’s prominent black leaders — Kweku Ramel Akyirefi Smith and Reggie Jackson — explain the historical roots of the current unrest over policing.
The cries of justice for George Floyd have spread from the streets of Minneapolis to across the United States to around the globe. We have a pandemic of racism layered on top of the current pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus. If we have not learned yet; we are a global society. What happens in one area of the globe has the ability to bypass borders that cannot be controlled or contained by armed militia or walls.
Many people have agreed that what has happened to Floyd was an unfortunate issue that could have been better resolved by those four Minneapolis police officers. However, the problem of the blatant disregard for the health and safety of the African body is nothing
Yet America asks the victims of systemic oppression and lethal violence to remain calm, to pray, to vote, and to wait for change.
new to America. From generation to generation we have seen Africans stolen from their place of origin, sold like cattle into slavery, raped, flogged and beaten, hung from trees, killed by overzealous vigilantes and rogue officers, all while being economically castrated and shut out of the American dream. The anger you see manifesting in the streets of America is the pent-up frustration of failed promises of America from before her inception that goes far beyond the killing of George Floyd.
All men are created equal! However, if we investigate this phrase deeper, at the time it was written it can be better translated that all landowning rich, white, Christian men of northern European descent are created equal. America was not founded for the African. America was not founded for white women. America was not founded for poor white men. If we are to solve the deepest problem of America, we must delve into the painful truth of the origins of America. The truth is that America is not broken. America is what it was created to be. America was created for a selected group of aristocrats that controlled the vast amount of the wealth, which has enabled them to wield an invisible power that continually manipulates segments of society to compete against each other to the ultimate benefit of the wealthy and their families. America is not so very different from the England it spun off from — it just put the colonial landed gentry in charge.
It is the beautiful deception of America — her unmet promise — that is the cause of this great anger, the cause of the outbursts we see manifested today. Many ask, why would people loot, riot, destroy local businesses, and burn up their own communities?
The sad toll of lies
America has lied to the African American community for years.
Africans were told that if you helped to fight the British, your freedom would be granted. Africans fought the British, but their freedom was not granted. During the Civil War, Africans were told, if you fight for the Union, your freedom would be given. The Emancipation Proclamation appeared to give freedom; however, President Andrew Johnson and the Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson made it clear that the Reconstruction era was also filled with false promises and limitations that still excluded Africans from American society.
Africans, again, were told if they fought in World War I and World War II they, and their posterity, would be given equal access to the American dream. However, the Africans that poured their
A few hundred protesters cross the Milwaukee River on North Avenue on Wednesday protesting the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer and police brutality.
blood, sweat, and tears on the battlefield returned to a society that treated them with the same hostility as before they left to fight and defend the country of their birth.
The passage of hard-fought civil rights legislation gave greater access to America and economic mobility to some Africans; however, for the masses, the inequities continued. The check of true equality for all has continued to be returned for insufficient funds.
So why the riots and violence in the midst of peaceful protests? One protester has stated that this is the result of toxic leadership. The truth is, this is America! This is how we respond to being attacked. How did America respond after Pearl Harbor? How did America respond after the destruction of the Twin Towers? Who called for peace after those horrific and deadly events? America doesn’t turn the other cheek.
Yet America asks the victims of systemic oppression and lethal violence to remain calm, to pray, to vote, and to wait for change. The irony of this ask is that it is being requested by a government that, to this day, is involved in an endless war that started in 2001 and has continued from Bush to Obama to Trump.
In the context of social learning, how can a person be raised in America and watch violence on television; play violent games; witness violence in the homes and school; see law enforcement officers enact a harsh brand of justice; and live in the home of the strongest military on the planet and not have a violent visceral reaction to perceived injustice?
The names of Jimmie Lee Jackson, Ernest Lacy, Dontre Hamilton, Tamir Rice, Ezell Ford, Tanisha Anderson, Derrick
Williams, Tony Robinson, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd are harsh reminders that generation after generation African bodies are not treated with the same respect and reverence as other members of the American society. A violent response is predictable.
A meaningful cause, a magnetic force
Why are white people coming out in masses like never before in this country for George Floyd? Two reasons specifically: the coronavirus and the last screams of Brother Floyd. We have seen the world quarantined. In the midst of the quarantine, the economic pain, depression, and solitude have compelled many people to evaluate and ponder about their life, mortality, and legacy. The opportunity to be reconnected to humanity and connect to a meaningful cause has created a magnetic force that has drawn people into this movement in a way they cannot explain.
Second, the horrific scene of watching a police officer place his knee in an individual’s neck until he mercilessly killed him, with a brazen disregard for life or even the camera taping him, has outraged the masses. The words of a large African American man crying out for his Momma after pleading for his killers to show him mercy touched the soul of all children who love their mothers and all mothers who love their children. The pain of hearing your child cry out while you are helpless to protect him resonates with every sentient being. The word Momma removes all xenophobia because that word unites not only a nation but a global society.
The unrest all over the world rose from George Floyd’s cry for his mother as humanity became one with George. This moment triggered layers of emotions that had been forgotten, ignored, and suppressed. When Brother Floyd died and no immediate justice was presented, it pushed a lot of people over the edge. This injustice was a cruel reminder of the perpetual knee of oppression on the neck of many Americans, and global citizens who have been let down by systems that continually fail to protect them and recognize their basic humanity due to race, gender, religion or other reasons for being separated and identified as less than equal. Regardless if you agree with violence, is it reasonable to expect only calm and no violence in the early days after another killing of an unarmed man?
Every peaceful protest can suddenly turn into a mob. The recipe for the crowd to turn into a ruthless mob requires three ingredients. The unholy trinity for chaos requires the cloak of anonymity, people intoxicated by a newfound power within a large group, and individuals with past trauma activated by a current injustice. Suddenly, previous law-abiding citizens develop a sense of invincibility, lower inhibitions, and unbridled passion and strength that erupts into chaos and destruction.
Leaders say these riots never result in positive change. This is not true. The purpose of the protests are to call attention to injustice. The riots are, sadly, an exclamation point that amplifies the message so that deaf ears begin to listen and create change. The question is what will leadership do this time? The last time our global society faced a pandemic, it was followed by a world war and the Great Depression. What have we learned? What will we do differently?
The leadership in this country, on the left and the right, have proven to be inept. The leadership has been a step behind from the outset. The leadership has failed to create a unified and coordinated plan to move America forward as a unified nation. This situation will get worse before it gets better. It is not the news we want to hear but denying this reality only exacerbates the mercurial force of the current crisis.
America has roots that reach deep down into the corrupt soil of greed, division, and violence. To truly move forward, America must address the reality that she is a plutocracy parading as a democracy with levels of income inequality that are not sustainable for a healthy nation, a healthy society. The cry of the citizenry is a prophetic message: Where there is no justice, there will be no peace! The protests — and riots — will continue until there is justice. And some citizens are like the great patriot, Patrick Henry, willing to risk their lives to get the liberty promised in the Constitution.
Kweku Ramel Akyirefi Smith, PhD, LP is president of Blaquesmith LLC