August 28 marks the 59th anniversary of the epoch-making speech of Martin Luther King Jr -- “I have a dream.” The speech that evoked a sense of freedom in the African Americans. The extraordinary oration by Martin Jr conveyed the message to millions of minds that all men are made equal. It was presumed that the end of slavery would uproot the bud of racial hatred against Black Americans forever.
After 59 years of that historic speech, in retrospect, what really happened to Martin Jr’s dream? The dream of having an America that judges its people based on the content of their character instead of the colour of their skin? And how has the world embraced the essence of this timeless speech, if at all?
Just two months ago, on the afternoon of May 22, 10 people were shot dead on the spot, with three more severely wounded. The spine-chilling event took place at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. Security guards fired several shots at the shooter, but he was, in his bulletproof jacket, untouchable.
The shooter was a young 18-year-old Payton Gendron, and the deceased men were Black, except for 2 of them. The US Department of Justice referred to this horrific act as a hate crime, instigated by acute racial hatred.
Interestingly, many Black Americans pointed out the role of the police in arresting Payton. If it was a Black man getting caught while committing such a crime, the police would have shot him dead right there. But in Payton’s case, they talked him into giving up the weapon and took him into custody, with much courtesies.
Let that sink in.
Allegations against the US police department for being prejudiced against the African-Americans is no news anyway. In 2020, amidst the Covid tension, the "Black lives matter" movement went off the ground like a burning flame. The murder of an unarmed Black American civilian by then Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pierced millions of hearts all over the world.
Derek, the now-former policeman pressed his knees into George’s neck with all his energy for nearly 10 minutes. Without a sense of guilt or accountability, as if George’s life did not matter at all. The extent of apathy and hatred Derek harboured against Black people probably needed no further measurement.
We all recognized that face: That brutal pleasure of giving pain to somebody you hate just because they exist, just for the way they look, just for their skin colour. This was almost a repeat telecast of a similar incident that took place on July 17, 2014.
If you watched the video, then you know it and if you did not, consider yourself lucky. A helpless man was uttering the last few words of his life with unimaginable pain, “I can’t breathe,” except that could not stop now-former policeman Pantaleo from having Eric Garner in his chokehold. Using a chokehold was anyway already banned by the US police.
Highly asthmatic Eric Garner died from choking, and his begging for a little air remained as a testifier of the shamelessly racist practice of the US police department.
Both Floyd and Garner were suspects of innocuous crimes. Garner was arrested on suspicion of being involved with illegal tobacco business; Floyd was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill.
The US policemen predominantly practice their law enforcing power upon the Black civilians because they are “abominable” and “repulsive.” How is there a better place for power practice other than the entities you deeply hate?
As much as I try to characterize these hate crimes separately, the underlying reasons continue to overlap. It is almost like an unexplainable deep-rooted despise -- half of it comes from the historic habits of enslaving Black people, half of it is rekindled by the extreme-right political rhetoric.
They find the Black skin ugly and the dark people, for them, hold all the impurities and corrupted sentiments of the world. To the point where Black people are not considered to be complete humans, hence human rights are inapplicable to them.
Black people’s "innate tendency" of committing crimes is perhaps one of the most trusted and practiced stereotypes in the United States. The bizarre and disproportionate criminalization of Black people, in reality, is just another biased representation of the lawmakers.
Even some parts of the media constantly feed into the White supremacist agenda of misinterpreting Black people by criminalizing them.
Black people are inherently criminals and even after living in the United States for over several decades, they are outsiders. The White supremacists have confessed regarding their fear of getting replaced by other ethnic groups living in America, especially African-Americans.
For the simplest instance, we can just look back on the most recent Buffalo attack. If a young boy as Payton was so driven by hatred, then the sense of this problematic superiority and racial abomination had to be inculcated into them from an early age. The kids cultivate the culture of racial hatred from an age when they are not even exposed to institutional education.
According to an FBI report from 2020, the Hate Crime Statistics demonstrated the disproportionate ratio of hate crimes in the States. 61.4% of the hate crimes were based on ethnicity or race. The analysis of these crime reports scream of racial superstition against African-Americans.
Black people, even after decades of struggles and movements, are still exposed to hate crimes more than any other group.
Another recent FBI report said, in the beginning of 2022, from January to the middle of February, 57 historically Black educational institutes and religious places were earmarked by bomb threats; over calls, messages, social media posts. Albeit there was no explosion, the terror against Black people remains relavant till date.
Hateful political rhetorics have also contributed to it from time to time. On one hand, America has advanced towards the dream country of Martin Luther King -- Barack Obama became the president of the United States, Kamala Harris has recently become the vice president. On the contrary, former US president Donald Trump openly expressed his support towards the White supremacists many times. From calling them "my people" to asking the congresswoman to go back to where she came from because she is a woman of colour, political summons to further racial hatred have always twisted the knife in the wound.
In the intensely emotional yet powerful "I have a dream" speech, Martin Luther King dreamt of a hate-free America for his successors, where his 4 little kids will not be judged by the colour of their skin but the content of their character.
The dream is yet to be fulfilled. But in the same speech, Martin Jr gave us the magic of hope:
“And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”
For the supremacists to feel superior, they have to live off the freedom of the Black people. But this journey shall never walk back, and that was the promise of the great march on Washington for jobs and freedom.
The dream will someday turn into an existing reality.
Sharbani Datta is an intern at Dhaka Tribune.