‘I Can’t Breathe’: The Life of a Black Man in America
Analysis by Joelle El Sheikh, Staff Writer and Sarah Yehya, Staff Writer
June 1st, 2020
The United States of America, a country known for its liberal identity and its constant fight to ‘instill democracy’ in the world, still suffers from the most basic anti-liberal, anti-humanitarian, and anti-democratic issue of racism. While the world is struggling to fight the deadly coronavirus pandemic, the United States finds itself facing a bigger, more dangerous pandemic: the seemingly never-ending spread of Racial Injustice.
May 25th marked the return of what seemed like a life-long struggle for African Americans across all states.
On Monday evening, George Floyd, an African American man, was arrested in Minneapolis, Minnesota after allegedly attempting to use a $20 bill in a nearby deli, which an employee identified as counterfeit. Derek Chauvin, the now fired white police officer responsible for the arrest knelt on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, with 2 minutes and 53 seconds of that continuing after Floyd was unresponsive.
Floyd was lying face-down on the ground while Chauvin had his knee on his neck, repeating the phrase “I can’t breathe”over and over again, as three other police officers watched. The police officers, in a failed attempt to justify their actions, claimed that Floyd physically resisted the arrest. However, that too was disregarded after another video surfaced minutes before the incident showing Floyd showing no signs of resistance before his arrest. The world, specifically the black community, watched the video in horror, fearing for their own lives and wondering “who’s next?”.
A law professor at the Michigan State University College reported the following: “African-American prisoners who were convicted of murder are about 50 percent more likely to be innocent than other convicted murderers and spend longer in prison before exoneration”[i]. Are they more corrupt or susceptible to commit a crime? Is gang violence on a rise? Or is it the classic case of racism? It is indeed an evident case of racism because faulty accused crimes and lack of fair trials left innocent men rot in jail while cold-blooded murders run free in the outside world.
A semi-contradictory case of OJ Simpson comes in place. His complexion played the opposite role because it may arguably have been his ticket out of prison. Theories of whether Buffalo Bill’s infamous number 23 player murdered his ex-wife Nicole Simpson are still swarming to this day. With his alibi being that the glove found at the site of murder did not fit his hand, the “non-guilty” verdict is questioned for its validity. Was he really innocent, or was the judicial system trying to prove that race plays absolutely no role in its final rulings - especially acknowledging that the 90s were certainly a height for the ‘clap-backs’ against racism.
The judicial system feared being accused of racial profiling that they left room for doubt circulating a murder case. It makes one wonder to what extent they’d be willing to go in order to hide their bloody paws and maintain a clean and racist-free slate after this past month’s incidents.
After Floyd’s death, protests began in Minneapolis and on May 27th, only two days after the Minneapolis incident, protests spread all across the country, including states such as California, Atlanta, Washington and Denver. The protests soon turned violent, with people burning down shops and destroying properties, all while chanting “I can’t breathe”. Is it not a shame that even in the 21st century, with the most advanced technologies and human innovation, we still need to remember that black lives matter?
This raises an extremely controversial yet important question of why. Why has the United States, despite countless protests and movements, failed to move on from its dark past of black oppression? More importantly, is racism rooted in the American culture or does the man standing in the White House have a big role to play?
On that note, we must go back in recent history to a turning point in the African American community: The Civil Rights Movement. One of the most well-known advocates for social change and the leader of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. continuously organized nonviolent protests and mass demonstrations to highlight the evident racial discrimination and demand civil rights legislation protecting African Americans.
The movement was so powerful that it arguably pushed Congress to enact the Civil Rights Act in 1964[ii]. The American dream was finally becoming a reality.
However, while the civil rights movement won against racism, racists still persisted, angrier than ever. Racial disparities were found within the job market, health system, and the police department. In the words of Ibram X. Kendi of the Washington Post, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not the beginning of the end of American racism[iii]. It was the beginning of our poisonous belief that America was ending racism.
This brings us to another turning point in Black history: The Obama Presidency.
When President Barack Obama was first elected, the entire black community in America braced for what looked like a glimmer of hope for a better, more peaceful future. The first black president, and the subsequence first black first lady, Michelle Obama, brought back hope for the American-and human- dream; the dream that institutional racism and pervasive inequality would slowly fade away.
Unfortunately, the Obama Presidency triggered racial furies that have since multiplied.
In 2012, Trayvon Martin, an African American 17-year old living in Florida, was shot after an encounter with the coordinator of a gated community where Martin was visiting his relatives. Despite the obvious prejudice, the coordinator was acquitted after trail after claiming ‘self-defense’ (despite the fact that Martin was unarmed). In 2015, nine African Americans were killed during a bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church by a 21 year old white supremacist. The incident was known as the “Charleston church massacre”.
Despite Obama’s endless speeches, the African American community expressed their disappointment over the president’s failure to directly address racial and economic justice policies. Does the fact that racial injustice persisted in Obama’s presidency shift the blame away from the White House? Well, let’s talk about the current President of the United States Donald Trump.
Trump has a long history of speech and actions that have been largely viewed as racist and xenophobix. Whether it’s with his stance on discrimination cases (the central park five) or immigration policies, Trump has continuously stood against the African American community, foreshadowing a similar presidency.
Another man committing the ‘crime of jogging’ was perforated with bullets in broad daylight on February 23rd.[iv] His name was Ahmaud Arbery, and his blood fell in the hands of white supremacists who were arrested a month later.
The American police department are like a crossword puzzle: tricky, complicated, and you never know which murders they’ll prioritize.
After watching Criminal Minds you’d think they never let a crime slide! They turn a blind eye to murders of the black community, and only act upon them due to pulsating pressure by outraged citizens. A statistic provided by Aljazeera shows that a ratio determining which race is most likely to be killed by law enforcement, and a striking 7:1 fall on the heads of young black men[v]. With such statistics in sight, questioning the judicial system and its lack of structural integrity is far from out of question.
It didn’t fade away after the Civil Rights Movement, it kept growing during the Obama Presidency, and here we are again, tweeting “Black Lives Matter” on Twitter and watching the riots in the United States over the unlawful death of yet another innocent black man.
If Joe Biden, who gets the majority of his support from the Black community gets elected, will things change?[vi] The shortest answer is no.
While laws and policies protecting the African American community are necessary, the real change happens in our home, our workplace, our community. Racism isn’t rooted, it’s taught. When a child asks his mother why his friend in school has a different skin color, her answer is the key that either unlocks a world that builds itself on racism and discrimination, or the realm of solidarity and integration. Racism began and ends with us.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” -Martin Luther King .
[i] https://research.msu.edu/innocent-african-americans-more-likely-to-be-wrongfully-convicted/
[ii] https://www.youthforhumanrights.org/voices-for-human-rights/champions/martin-luther-king-jr.html
[iii] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/07/02/the-civil-rights-act-was-a-victory-against-racism-but-racists-also-won/
[iv] https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-filmed-shooting-ahmaud-arbery-charged-murder/story?id=70820910
[v] http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/22/denver-police-shoot-mentally-ill-native-american.html
[vi] https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/03/opinion/why-black-voters-support-joe-biden/