Michael Brown, an 18 years-old African American teenage boy was shot down on Saturday Aug 9th by a Ferguson police officer in St. Louis. Witnesses say Brown had his hands in the air as he was shot from 35 feet away.
My personal
belief is that there is no race, we are all equal, we are all brothers and sisters,
we all deserve the same rights and the color of our skin when were are born,
does not influence the shape of our brain and hearts. But due to the recent
events, I those beliefs are only mine.
The black
race (term I strongly disapprove but which to some people makes sense) has
always suffered throughout history and according to me enough blood have been
shed and that’s why news like the murder
of an unarmed African American boy outrages and revolts me. The fact that such acts can still happen in a
“civilized” country like the United States of America in the Twenty-First
Century is a big punch to the stomach of black history. It is an insult to race
that have always been fighting for welfare and rights its people, it is an
insult to the legacy of people like Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela,
Malcolm X etc… who gave their time and life to fight for the freedom and rights
of black people, it is an insult to the people who fought and died for the independence
of African Nations and an insult for the people who are still fighting for a
total equality of races.
A Ferguson prostester chants "hands up don't shoot" at police in riot gear. ( Ben Kesling via Twitter )
This act of
violence toward an unarmed citizen just because of the color of his skin makes
it legitimate for all black people living in western countries to question themselves
about the rights they truly have. Is success only for white people? Are we
condemned to live in ghettos? Are we only qualified for low paying and
downgrading jobs? Are we born with the
tag murderer on our foreheads? And one
point that is clear to us with the death of Michael Brown is that black people
will have to double their vigilance and efforts in whatever they do if they
want to stay alive.
If you are
white and you’re reading me, don’t get me wrong. Not all white people have
perfect life but I am sure that the percentage of black people with perfect
life (i.e success, happiness, money…) is a lower than the number of low class
white people. And the reason this
difference exists is because of racism. Once one of my white friends (hate
using terms like that) in a discussion told me, with certainty that in the European
country where I live, “there isn't a lot of racism… right?” (“right” to make
her affirmation look less affirmative). In peaceful way I just answer this “It’s
not because you don’t see racism that it doesn't exist.” And if today she was
to ask me the same question again, I’ll just make her google ‘Michael Brown’.
As a
conclusion, I’ll say that the story of Michael Brown is not only the story of a
boy who was killed for no legal reason, but also the story of community which
after all what has happened to it, it still has things to prove to the white
supremacists alive.
May the
soul of Michael Brown rest in peace and all my deep regrets and condolences go
to his family.
- B. Y
