Ali Sukhanver
ON Saturday 06 June, according to the
NBC News, ‘George Floyd’s family
members gathered for a song-and prayer-filled private memorial service in North Carolina, after an earlier public viewing of his body drew long lines of mourners from around the country. Family members and public officials spoke at the service in Raeford, North Carolina, honouring Floyd, whose death last week in Minneapolis police custody has sparked protests around the world against police brutality and racism.’ After the memorial different people addressed the mourners. The most impressive speech was that of Hoke County Sheriff Hubert Peterkin who in his fiery words and blazing style simply mesmerized the mourners. He said, “The law enforcement officers don’t have the authority to bully, push people around and kill them because they have a badge and a gun on. It’s got to change. Don’t let the life of George Floyd be in vain.” So the brutal killing of George Floyd has kindled a new flame of freedom-war in the very hearts of the Black-Americans. But at the same time there are some very important questions; was the murder of George Floyd purely an outcome of racial hatred? Is all this agitation simply a protest against the murder of a Black American or it is a reaction against police brutality; if George Floyd were not a black man and if the policeman were not a white-man, would the people have reacted in the same way . And above all is the question; if Mr. Donald Trump was not the President and 2020 were not the election year, things would have gone the same way?
Racial hatred and disliking is not only the part of the American society, it is a universal problem. From Israel to the Arab countries and from Iran to France, a feeling of racial supremacy is something very common. There are two levels of this hatred; one at the individual level and other at the government level. In some countries racial discrimination prevails as the state-policy. In democratic countries the rulers try more enthusiastically to keep racial-fumes in a cool state just to cope with the international community. However education, scientific advancement, technical achievement, success in business and trade and a desire of peace and prosperity simply bury these negative passions somewhere in the depth though not so deep. It is also a fact that on the basis of some individual’s racial hatred, the whole nation could not be blamed and condemned. If the Americans, as a nation, were narrow-minded and prejudiced with reference to the racial discrimination; Barack Obama would never have been elected the President of USA but at individual or personal level this discrimination does exist; it is a reality.
Surely the story behind is not as simple as it seems. The Trump Administration is openly blaming that Far-Left Extremists are airing and fuelling the protests against murder of George Floyd. In an interview with some media group, Attorney General William Barr said, “Unfortunately, with the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful protest are being hijacked by violent, radical elements.” According to the VOA, there could be four different extremist groups which are trying to add to the intensity of protest. These groups include the White Supremacists, Boogaloo Boys, Antifa and the Anarchists. Opposing immigration and advocating the expulsion of the non-whites from the country is a group known as The White Supremacists. This group believes in the supremacy of the white race. Many of the members belonging to this group have carried out deadly shootings in recent years; say police reports. They are the people who wish to accelerate a race war just to create an air of fear and fright for the African-Americans. According to Christopher Wray, an FBI Director, most of the FBI’s domestic terrorism investigations involve members of this white supremacist group. ‘Boogaloo Boys’ is an anti-government militia movement. They are in fact an online community of pro-gun activists. They promote themselves as libertarians fighting tyranny.
The anti-fascist movement known as the Antifa is also one of the extremist groups. “The members of Antifa are far-left activists opposed to neo-Nazis and other extremist groups; it is an extreme anarchist-communist movement’, says the Voice of America in a report. At the very bottom of the list come the Anarchists. They are not a very well organized group but they are there with the only consideration; how to sow chaos. It is also said that the history of the Anarchists dates back to 1901 when an anarchist assassinated William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States. In short when the Trump Administration talks of the far-left extremists, it means the fingers are pointing towards all these four groups. By putting blame on the ‘far-left’ extremists, the Trump Administration has, however, admitted that even USA is not free of the extremists and their extremism. Astonishingly for more than two decades, the USA has been admonishing rather reprimanding almost all Muslim countries for their alleged extremism; sometimes punishing them in shape of putting sanctions and sometimes in the form of imposing bans of different types on them but it could not keep a vigilant eye on the extremism nurturing inside its own boundaries. Things could be brought back to the normal, though superficially and temporarily, if the Trump Administration tries honestly and sincerely to redress the grievances of the Black Americans by giving them equal rights and all privileges. The first step to these confidence building measures would be the way the American law deals with Derek Chauvin, the killer.
—The writer is freelance columnist based in Multan.
