These
confluences of historical events this week are such that most of us would be
twitching our bodies and scratching our heads to resolve, and appreciate for
years to come. Indeed the events that have transpired this week would require
generational assessment if we desire the relevancy of mankind in the cosmos.
Our human race have been saddened by the critical condition of the indomitable
voice of the oppressed in South Africa under the apartheid reign and the eventual
distinguished leader of the South African people. Most are eagerly praying that
Mr. Nelson Madiba Mandela who gave 27years of his life to affirm our collective
dignity and humanity will remain with us as we go through these trying times in
our various societies.
Human
Rights in the United States have undergone rapid developments this week that we
have monitored through the main street media, alternative media, and social
media a.k.a. NSA swimming pool. With the US Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative
action and abolition of section IV of the voter’s right act, one wonders what Mr.
Bayard Rustin one of the great leaders of the civil rights movement in the
United States and a convener of the 1963 Civil Rights march on Washington would
say if he were still alive. In making the decision to rescind section IV, it is
as though the members of the court who voted in the confirmatory were having
their own hurricane Katrina moments. They conveniently disregarded the whole of last year when governors, secretaries of state,
attorney generals, and legislatures sort to rig and/or influence the elections
from Pennsylvania to Ohio to Texas to Wisconsin to Florida to name a few. These
shameless justices practically sanctioned longer voting lines and fewer voting
days’ policies. Instead of eliminating section IV, the US past and contemporary
history necessitates that it should have applied to all fifty states and
regions.
Ironically, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the
1965 Voting Right Act which made the United States a great nation and a beacon
of freedom around the world has been guttered on the same week that our
homosexual brothers and sisters were spared the indignities of federally
sanctioned discrimination. The Civil rights movement and the resultant laws
were the actualization of the American ideals, ideas, and promises that are
contained in the Bill of Rights. It could be said that the American bill of
rights were not worth the papers they were written on until the abolition of
Jim Crow segregation laws and those practices that infringed on the inalienable
rights, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for a cross section of Americans. At
the core of civil rights movement that was led by the likes of Rev. Martin
Luther King, Mrs. Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, and
Representative John Lewis is human dignity and economic empowerment for all.
But in 2013 those so-called jurist
in the supreme court are of the opinion that
close to 300years of slavery and 100years of Jim Crow racial segregation and
discrimination can be whitewashed with less than 50years of civil rights,
voting rights, and affirmative action. The Civil Rights act and the Voting
Rights act were the affirmation of our equality, sanctity of life, and our collective
human rights to survive, rather than to squalor with racial discrimination,
prejudice, and insidious second class citizenship. Those rights were put in
place to mitigate the carnage of lynching, apartheid, economic marginalization,
and disenfranchisement in the United States.
These laws were put in place to ensure that companies like McDonalds and
others do not trick us with limited black people in their advertisements
whereas they use our patronage funds to sponsor organizations such as American
Legislative Exchange Council ALEC.
ALEC was the same organization responsible
for placing stand your ground laws to shield criminals like George Zimmerman
who was enthusiastic about dehumanizing any black life under the pretense of
neighborhood watch. ALEC amalgamated corporations and legislators to sponsor
laws that busted unions and restricted access to voting. We also need to
remember the ALEC connections to the Koch brothers who were also sponsors of the
AstroTurf Tea Party groups with their manufactured mass movements. Under their schemes, poor households and other
minorities should be afforded limited affirmative action and educational
financial assistance which is withdrawn for the flimsiest of reasons such as
marijuana use. Conversely, it is okay to pass laws that allow African American
and Latino boys and men to be subjected to systematic racial profiling. It is
also dandy to promote laws that empower people to gun down young boys like
Trayvon Martin with intended malice and hate void of any provocation, and wait
for mass agitation before the murderer is charged and tried in court.
Other mass
movements remain alive and well in places like Brazil and Turkey where the
footballing industrial Complex has shown their might like they did at the South
Africa 2010 world cup. When the South Africans got frustrated about the cost of
the world cup and the dictates of the Federation Internationale de Football
Association (FIFA) they turned inwards and massacred fellow Africans under the
guise of overpopulation and economic hardship. But in Brazil and Turkey the
focus remains on the culprits of economic malaise and inhumane social justice policies.
In Brazil which has excelled in uplifting the poor under former President Lula
da Silva and his successor President Dilma Rousseff the question remains as to why
more investment on the peoples’ economic development has not remained a
priority, instead of state corruption and massive investment on FIFA projects
like the stadiums.
In
Turkey, the masses want to be able to shape policies in their country. They
crave for a bottom to top approach rather than the heavy handedness of Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Though, Mr. Erdogan has being instrumental in
delivering foreign investment in Somali and accommodating the Syrian refugees,
the Turks want to be consulted in their domestic matters. They long for a
society that would be guided by the aspirations of the people rather than the
dogmas of the religious right. Hence like the Brazilians who are protesting
right in front of the soccer fields that are the venues of the confederate cup,
the Turks are also demonstrating and boycotting the FIFA Under 20 soccer
tournament. In both countries they would rather be on the streets than pay the
exorbitant fees to watch the football matches.
The Occupy Movements in Brazil and
Turkey are producing the next generations of Nelson Mandelas who are speaking
truth to power and forcing concessions for a better world. Global citizens in
Rio prefer capital expenditures in the favelas that will benefit the local
inhabitants without creating artificial inflation and/or bubbles that results
in homelessness in the short run and unsustainable growth in the long-term.
Those in Istanbul are akin to Mr. Snowden of the United States who resents the
power grabbing nature of some of the world’s governments. They want their
government to desist from usurping authorities and abusing public trust. These
heroes yawn to be part of the progressive public discourses that have been
engrained in our collective consciousness this week. Irrespective of our
economic systems these protesters and billions around the world long for
transparency in government, which has human rights and economic justice at the core.
Nnamdi F.
Akwada MSW, BA is a Social Justice Activist
