Stop it. God didn’t mention colour
Shaadaab S. Bakht
Shaadaab S. Bakht, who worked for famous Indian dailies The Telegraph, The Pioneer, The Sentinel and wrote political commentaries for Tehelka.com, is Gulf Today’s Executive Editor.
- 26 Jun 2020
Dogs do not trade in dogs but humans do. Yet, they are called beasts and we aren’t, they are leashed and we aren’t, unalloyed bias. But I am not surprised at all because bias seems to be the signature tenor of our society. If you are a Black man then the social chain for you will be thicker and heavier. If you are a White man then you probably will be given the authority to unlock that chain or leave it in that state till eternity. We saw that in Minneapolis and Atlanta.
They were the most recent live examples of human hatred triggered by the colour of skin. Two Blacks were killed by powerful Whites. Their crimes didn’t warrant deaths, their complexion did. So felt the White men.
Their crimes didn’t warrant deaths, their complexion did
I know well that this bias will never go, but even then I am really happy that anti-racism protests have been rocking important cities of the world.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said the Black Lives Matter protests showed society had reached a “tipping point” at which injustices are finally being addressed. I fully agree with her.
Thunberg correctly said, “People are starting to find their voice, to sort of understand that they can actually have an impact.”
British protesters rightly toppled the statue of a 17th century slave trader, Edward Colston. He actually made money on the basis of his complexion. Not only that, he was honoured for his satanic acumen. Isn’t that sheer bias?
The Church of England and the Bank of England expressed remorse for profiting from the sale of Africans to the Americas. Too little too late.
The statue of a southern general, Albert Pike, who defended slavery during the US Civil War, was thrown down and set on fire by protesters on June 19th in Washington. In other words, he treated human beings like commodities. And the world of believers rewarded him with a statue. Isn’t that stomach-churning prejudice? What was more horrible is Trump calling the agitators’ act a disgrace.
On June 19, 1865, a Union general arrived in Galveston, Texas, and informed slaves that they were free, two months after the Civil War had ended and two-and-a-half years after president Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
The date is generally celebrated with prayer services and family gatherings, but comes this year amid a national soul-searching over America’s legacy of racial injustice.
I am with the protesters, but a close look at history has left me terribly unhappy because I discovered decades ago that our society has been a script without grammar.
