Wati Longchar (Serampore)
The world has witnessed the police brutality and murders of George Floyd in Minneapolis, followed by the destructive acts of protesters in different parts of the world. According to the UN News, more than 600 rights groups called for an investigation into police violence after the murder of George Floyd. The white Minneapolis police officer, Mr. Derek Chauvin, who knelt on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes faces charges of second-degree murder and human slaughter. The other three officers have been charged with aiding and abetting murder. Denouncing racism, the UN Human Rights Council President, Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger, said that the issue of Floyd’s killing is not just one isolated killing in one country, but it goes beyond, and it is a crucial universal concern that needs to be seriously addressed. The British Crime Survey reveals that in 2004, around 87,000 people from black or minority ethnic communities said they had been victims of a racially motivated crime. They had suffered 49,000 violent attacks, with 4,000 being wounded. The practice of racism is indeed sin and crime against humanity.
Racism and Slave Trade
The gruesome murder of Ahmad Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and many others reveals how deep the racial mind-set is in our society. This is just one episode, but the black, the indigenous people, and many racial minorities have been facing discrimination, both individually and collectively, for centuries. During the colonial era, millions of Africans were captured, purchased, transported, and enslaved in Europe and North America. They were forced to work in railway constructions, sugar plantations, cotton, tobacco, tea, rice, and many other plantations, and development works. They were considered as properties and chattels for sale; they were brought to market places and sold along with animals and goods and frequently sold at auctions. If the buyers were not willing to buy, the whole family members were broken up for sale. The slave trade lasted for 400 years. It is said that about 40,000,000 Africans were transported from Africa to the U.S. Dunbar estimated that 900,000 slaves were imported in the sixteenth century, 2,750,000 in the seventeenth century, over 7,000,000 in the eighteenth century, over 4,000,000 in the nineteenth century, and about 15,000,000 in all. Even some of the Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian ministers owned slaves without realizing that it is sin and denial of human rights who are created in God’s image.
The slave trade was closely connected with the concept of white superiority. The blacks (and also brown) were considered not fully human beings, but seen as people with lesser brains and not created in the image of God. The white colour is always understood as superior; the black is the colour of inferiority and blackness is a sign of curse from God. The white race is mentally, physically, morally, or culturally superior to other races. It is not only the blacks who were brought as slaves, the white colonizers also assumed that the Native Americans and other indigenous people in different parts of the world were inferior in all human aspects. The Native Americans were merely described as “lying, thieving, murdering savages, pagan in religion, and racially stupid except for their animalistic cunning.” Some Europeans thought that because the blacks and indigenous were pagans, it was the responsibility of the white people to Christianize and civilize them. They thought that they were chosen by God to teach, dominate, rule over other nations, and that “Africans were destined for perpetual slavery because of the curse of Canaan.” Sadly, the blacks, Asians, and indigenous people's lives are still valued less than white lives. This is what is happening today in the US and other parts of the world.
Racism and Human Tragedy
Many tragic wars and killings have taken place due to racism in many parts of the world. Claiming their racial superiority, Germans slaughtered about 6 million Jews during the Holocaust under Hitler. Asserting the White race as superior, it is said that about 80 million American Indians were killed and thousands of people were made disabled in the U.S. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is said that about 209 thousand Japanese were killed in a single day when the Americans dropped two atom bombs. In December 1937, Japanese troops massacred 200,000 to 300,000 people in Nanjing, China. Taiwan still remembers the massacre of more than 30,000 Taiwanese on 29th February 1947 by the Kuomintang-led Republic of China Government. The U.S invasion of Iraq has claimed more than 180,000 innocent lives and more than 500,000 soldiers. Sporadic killings have become an everyday affair in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and many other countries. We can add many more sad stories of genocide and mass destruction that has occurred in the past and happening until today. All the wars are an integral part of racism and economic interest. After the land is conquered, its people have been forced to abandon their mother tongue, culture, and religion. The conquerors instil inferiority unto the conquered that they are backward, savage, inferior, and demonic. This is called racism. The denial of diversity and prejudice towards others’ races have caused much destruction all over the world.
COVID-19 and Racial Attacks
The COVID-19 pandemic is fuelling discrimination and racist attacks against Chinese and Asian communities are increasing all over the world. Racial superiority of the white is in the psyche of many people even today. The blacks though are free now but they are still slaves in the eyes of racist whites just because they are blacks. After the outbreak of COVID-19, racial attacks on Asian-Americans and Blacks have testified to that fact. They face not just a pandemic of health, but also a pandemic of hate. Asians are targeted not only in the U.S but also in Australia and Europe. Many Asians are feeling more vulnerable than ever before on roads, schools, elevators, and market places and even in their neighbourhood. According to a recent report from the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council’s Stop AAPI Hate, Asian-Americans in California have reported 832 incidents of discrimination in the past three months. Of those, 81 were incidents of assault while 64 were potential civil rights violations. Nation-wide, there have been nearly 20,000 reported incidences of discrimination and hate speech against the Asia and Pacific communities during the crisis (July 21, 2020 report). President Trump continues to call Coronavirus as “Chinese Virus” and “Kung Flu” in the press briefings and rallies. Asian-Americans, second-third generations living in the U.S are being asked “to go back to China”, “go back to wherever – Asian country you belong to”, “you started the corona”, “Chinaman, you need to go home”, “This f--- virus came from your mother country – you nasty a-- roaches”, “take your disease that’s ruining our county”. Likewise, many have been abused, attacked and many continue to live in fear of being attacked due to the surge of racism against Asians. Similarly, the Australian think tank Per Capita released a survey that shows that 81 percent of the respondents experienced attacks related to the coronavirus, among which 61 percent of the incidents included racist insults and abuse. The words "CHINA = COVID" were found written on the wall of a house on Sunday in a Chinese community in Sydney. Indeed, COVID-19 has exposed how racism creates violence and divides people based on race and colour.
