The Realities of Racism in the United States
By Julius Opuni Asamoah (BSc, MBA, CA)
A race is a group of people, with particular similar physical characteristics, who are considered as belonging to the same type, or the fact of belonging to such a group who share the same colour, language, history, characteristics, etc. There are different races in the world but find themselves in difficulties to live in harmony. This has brought about racism. Racism is very dangerous for human existence. It goes with much prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. Racism includes racial discrimination, racial segregation, racial prejudice and bigotry, xenophobia, chauvinism, apartheid etc. The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races is an outright racism.
Several abounding evidences have proven that black-skinned people are mostly coerced to taste the highest form of racial discrimination in the United States. Some of these inhuman acts include brutalities which take out their lives because of their blackened colour. This is what Martin Luther King Jr. (15th January 1929 – 4th April 1968) stood against in his lifetime as an African-American. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States. Due to his good works, he is often referenced as a famous human rights activist whenever a new case of racism rears its ugly head. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the greatest orators in US history, campaigned against racial discrimination and segregation through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Unfortunately, he met his untimely death through assassination at the tender age of 39. But still there are persistent black deaths from crimes by certain white extremists in the US. Most of these deaths are often masterminded by a group of white people known as “White Supremacists”. These white supremacists view themselves as fighting for the survival of white America. They view multiculturalism and demographic shifts that increase diversity as an attempt to destroy the white race. It is told that these points of view are embodied in what the white supremacists call the “Fourteen Words”, and it reads, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”.
Let’s listen to some portions of Martin Luther King’s acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway on 10th December, 1964 when he won the Nobel Peace Prize: “I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when twenty-two million Negroes of the US are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of injustice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeing to secure the right to vote were brutalised and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burnt because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation.
I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder. Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize. After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I am receiving on behalf of that movement is profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time. There is the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.
Civilisation and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the US, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.
If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity”.
The above are the salient features of the speech that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered when he received the Nobel Peace Prize award. His fight for equality was met with brutal expression of man’s inhumanity to man. This tyranny against African- Americans has existed for years without any bases. In this blazing light of human rights, it still prevails, as evidenced by the grievous suffocation to death of George Floyd, an African-American, by a white police officer, under the pretext that he resisted arrest. Video showing the early minutes of George Floyd’s arrest indicates he was complying with police officers on a Minneapolis street. The 46-year-old man died Monday night after an officer held him, pinned him down to the ground with a knee on his neck. In so doing, the police officer succeeded in flattening his neck to prevent him from breathing. This police officer was christened Derek Chauvin, the main murderer of George Floyd. The encounter began Monday around 8 p.m. when an employee at the Cup Foods convenience store called police to say that a customer later identified as Floyd had tried to use a counterfeit of US$20 to buy cigarettes. Surveillance video from a restaurant shows the initial encounter between Floyd and the police officers. When the police arrived at Cup Foods, Floyd and his two companions were still there, in a four-wheel drive vehicle parked across from the store. The police officers spoke to them, and then Floyd, in the driver’s seat, was taken into custody and handcuffed. A police statement was emphatic that it was at that point that Floyd physically resisted the actions of the police officers.
Specifically, as cited by the Hennepin County district attorney’s office in the criminal complaint concerning Floyd’s death, the police officers ordered Floyd out of the car, put his hands on Floyd, and pulled him out of the car. According to the police officers, they handcuffed Floyd and Floyd actively resisted being handcuffed. Once handcuffed, Floyd became compliant and walked with the police officers to the sidewalk and sat on the ground. At one point, Floyd seemed to stumble or drop to the ground, and the officers pulled him back to his feet. The reaction of the police did not indicate alarm. Floyd, a six-feet and little, and athletic build giant, worked as a bouncer and a truck driver, and towered over the police officers.
The police officers sat Floyd down on the sidewalk for a short time, then walked him across the street to where their squad car was parked, along with that of two other police officers who had recently arrived. Floyd ended up being pinned down to the ground by Police Officer Derek Chauvin. On bystanders’ video, showed Floyd complaining of pain and of not being able to breathe as Chauvin kept his knee on his neck. Onlookers were heard urging Chauvin to lift him up. Afterwards, Floyd then went silent. Police said in their statement that the officers realised Floyd appeared to be suffering medical distress and they therefore called in an ambulance. He was declared dead at a hospital a short time later. He was subjected to inhuman brutalities which led to his murderous death.
The video was released by Rashad West, owner of Dragon Wok Restaurant. He told CNN that he did not see any resistance, not at all. There is no audio available on that. Floyd’s facial expression can be read as distressed, but he did not appear to be yelling or acting aggressively. Cup Foods owner Mahmoud Abumayyaleh also said that video from his store showed that Floyd was not resisting arrest. He emphasised that the authorities asked him not to release the video to the general public but did not heed to their call.
The police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man, in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota on Monday evening has sparked waves of outrage across the United States. There have been similar protests in the UK and other countries, in solidarity with their counterparts in the US. For the fourth straight night following the death of Floyd in the hands of a white police officer while in custody, thousands of demonstrators have poured into streets in multiple U.S. cities to denounce the police brutality and racial discrimination. The latest instance of police violence has once again brought the public attention to the racial divide which has kept tearing the U.S. society apart.
The underneath is a list of major racial riots between police and African-Americans in recent years. On June 19, 2018, Antwon Rose Jr., a 17year-old African-American teenager, was shot three times in the back by an East Pittsburgh police officer in Allegheny County as he fled in a car suspected to be involved in an earlier shooting on that day. Rose's death sparked days of demonstrations in Pittsburgh demanding justice before his funeral, as protesters questioned police officer Michael Rosfeld's use of deadly force. On Sept. 20, 2016, Keith Lamont Scott, a 43year-old African- American, was fatally shot by police in the city of Charlotte in North Carolina, southeastern United States, sparking protests by African-Americans against racial discrimination and injustice by police. On Aug. 13, 2016, a confrontation between police and protestors turned violent in Milwaukee in the mid-western U.S. state of Wisconsin, after a police officer killed an armed 23year-old African-American trying to escape from two police officers who had stopped his car.
Furthermore, in April 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25year-old African-American, died in a Baltimore hospital after he was arrested for possessing what the police alleged to be an illegal switchblade. Gray's death sparked protests and riots in the city in northeastern United States. One year later, U.S. prosecutors dropped all charges against six police officers accused in the arrest and death of Gray. On Aug. 9, 2014, another 18year-old African-American, Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking over two weeks of unrest and clashes between protesters and law enforcement in the town where most of the population are black. On July 17, 2014, a cellphone recorded an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" when a New York officer held him in a chokehold before his death in police custody. Garner's last words were the same ones Floyd spoke as the officer knelt on his neck before he died. Almost five years later, federal prosecutors said the officer who caused the death of Garner would not face criminal charges. In July 2012, protestors clashed with police over two separate shootings in the city of Anaheim, southern California. Manuel Diaz, 25, and Joel Mathew Acevedo, 21, who were claimed by the police as gang members, were shot dead by police officers.
The existence of racially-based discriminatory behaviour has already been proven by the scenarios above. Broad evidence exists about ethnically or racially motivated discrimination in the American labour market, healthcare delivery, education, real estate market, mortgage market and in public goods. We are aware that important differences exist in the level of socially adequateness of expressing racism openly in different countries. This is an integral part of the level of racism, since the more openly and uncontested racism can be expressed, the more likely it is to have an impact on the lives of black people and peoples’ perception on black people as being violent with criminalities.
Evidence shows that exposure to racial discrimination leads to poor health among the ethnic minority individuals in adolescence and throughout the lifespan. In the United States, racism is a cultural system of values, symbols, and institutions which claim white racial superiority and use this assertion to subordinate minorities, which are considered inferior. Racial discrimination is the enactment of this cultural system in behaviours by white supremacists who harm black minorities. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses provide support for the notion that racial discrimination is related to multiple forms of illness, including depressive symptoms, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, hypertension, and diabetes. These negative health consequences may be exacerbated during adolescence, a developmental transition marked by enhanced socio emotional processing. Racial discrimination is harmful in the United States that have a pronounced history of racism.
It is proven that racial discrimination is a prevalent encounter against the black minority in the United States. There is interpersonal discrimination and this is attributed to race, ethnicity, or ancestry. Latino youth and their families have also been impacted by anti-Latino and anti-immigrant rhetoric, a draconian enforcement of immigration policies leading to more deportations, detentions, and family separations, and stigmatisation through negative media portrayals and calls for mass deportations.
In conclusion, all these hullabaloo point to the fact that African leaders need to develop our places of nationality, in order to attract these African-Americans back home in Africa, their ancestral home. Ghanaian people, through their leadership, launched a programme, “The Year of Return, Ghana 2019” for African-Americans to visit Ghana. It was an initiative of the government of Ghana along with U.S. based, The Adinkra Group, which was intended to encourage African diasporans to come to Africa, specifically Ghana, to settle and invest in the continent. It was formally launched by President Nana Akufo-Addo in September 2018 in Washington, D.C. as a programme for Africans in the diaspora to unite with Africans. The year 2019 was symbolic as it commemorated 400 years since the first enslaved Africans touched down in Jamestown, Virginia in the United States. Many African Americans who visited Ghana shared their stories regarding their experiences in Ghana during the Year of Return. They really appreciated the African continent, therefore, our leaders should take the entire development of the continent very serious, to enable us gain recognition in the global political realm.
A race is a group of people, with particular similar physical characteristics, who are considered as belonging to the same type, or the fact of belonging to such a group who share the same colour, language, history, characteristics, etc. There are different races in the world but find themselves in difficulties to live in harmony. This has brought about racism. Racism is very dangerous for human existence. It goes with much prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. Racism includes racial discrimination, racial segregation, racial prejudice and bigotry, xenophobia, chauvinism, apartheid etc. The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races is an outright racism.
Several abounding evidences have proven that black-skinned people are mostly coerced to taste the highest form of racial discrimination in the United States. Some of these inhuman acts include brutalities which take out their lives because of their blackened colour. This is what Martin Luther King Jr. (15th January 1929 – 4th April 1968) stood against in his lifetime as an African-American. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States. Due to his good works, he is often referenced as a famous human rights activist whenever a new case of racism rears its ugly head. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the greatest orators in US history, campaigned against racial discrimination and segregation through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Unfortunately, he met his untimely death through assassination at the tender age of 39. But still there are persistent black deaths from crimes by certain white extremists in the US. Most of these deaths are often masterminded by a group of white people known as “White Supremacists”. These white supremacists view themselves as fighting for the survival of white America. They view multiculturalism and demographic shifts that increase diversity as an attempt to destroy the white race. It is told that these points of view are embodied in what the white supremacists call the “Fourteen Words”, and it reads, “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”.
Let’s listen to some portions of Martin Luther King’s acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway on 10th December, 1964 when he won the Nobel Peace Prize: “I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when twenty-two million Negroes of the US are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of injustice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeing to secure the right to vote were brutalised and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burnt because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation.
I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder. Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize. After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I am receiving on behalf of that movement is profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time. There is the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.
Civilisation and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the US, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.
If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity”.
The above are the salient features of the speech that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered when he received the Nobel Peace Prize award. His fight for equality was met with brutal expression of man’s inhumanity to man. This tyranny against African- Americans has existed for years without any bases. In this blazing light of human rights, it still prevails, as evidenced by the grievous suffocation to death of George Floyd, an African-American, by a white police officer, under the pretext that he resisted arrest. Video showing the early minutes of George Floyd’s arrest indicates he was complying with police officers on a Minneapolis street. The 46-year-old man died Monday night after an officer held him, pinned him down to the ground with a knee on his neck. In so doing, the police officer succeeded in flattening his neck to prevent him from breathing. This police officer was christened Derek Chauvin, the main murderer of George Floyd. The encounter began Monday around 8 p.m. when an employee at the Cup Foods convenience store called police to say that a customer later identified as Floyd had tried to use a counterfeit of US$20 to buy cigarettes. Surveillance video from a restaurant shows the initial encounter between Floyd and the police officers. When the police arrived at Cup Foods, Floyd and his two companions were still there, in a four-wheel drive vehicle parked across from the store. The police officers spoke to them, and then Floyd, in the driver’s seat, was taken into custody and handcuffed. A police statement was emphatic that it was at that point that Floyd physically resisted the actions of the police officers.
Specifically, as cited by the Hennepin County district attorney’s office in the criminal complaint concerning Floyd’s death, the police officers ordered Floyd out of the car, put his hands on Floyd, and pulled him out of the car. According to the police officers, they handcuffed Floyd and Floyd actively resisted being handcuffed. Once handcuffed, Floyd became compliant and walked with the police officers to the sidewalk and sat on the ground. At one point, Floyd seemed to stumble or drop to the ground, and the officers pulled him back to his feet. The reaction of the police did not indicate alarm. Floyd, a six-feet and little, and athletic build giant, worked as a bouncer and a truck driver, and towered over the police officers.
The police officers sat Floyd down on the sidewalk for a short time, then walked him across the street to where their squad car was parked, along with that of two other police officers who had recently arrived. Floyd ended up being pinned down to the ground by Police Officer Derek Chauvin. On bystanders’ video, showed Floyd complaining of pain and of not being able to breathe as Chauvin kept his knee on his neck. Onlookers were heard urging Chauvin to lift him up. Afterwards, Floyd then went silent. Police said in their statement that the officers realised Floyd appeared to be suffering medical distress and they therefore called in an ambulance. He was declared dead at a hospital a short time later. He was subjected to inhuman brutalities which led to his murderous death.
The video was released by Rashad West, owner of Dragon Wok Restaurant. He told CNN that he did not see any resistance, not at all. There is no audio available on that. Floyd’s facial expression can be read as distressed, but he did not appear to be yelling or acting aggressively. Cup Foods owner Mahmoud Abumayyaleh also said that video from his store showed that Floyd was not resisting arrest. He emphasised that the authorities asked him not to release the video to the general public but did not heed to their call.
The police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed 46-year-old black man, in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota on Monday evening has sparked waves of outrage across the United States. There have been similar protests in the UK and other countries, in solidarity with their counterparts in the US. For the fourth straight night following the death of Floyd in the hands of a white police officer while in custody, thousands of demonstrators have poured into streets in multiple U.S. cities to denounce the police brutality and racial discrimination. The latest instance of police violence has once again brought the public attention to the racial divide which has kept tearing the U.S. society apart.
The underneath is a list of major racial riots between police and African-Americans in recent years. On June 19, 2018, Antwon Rose Jr., a 17year-old African-American teenager, was shot three times in the back by an East Pittsburgh police officer in Allegheny County as he fled in a car suspected to be involved in an earlier shooting on that day. Rose's death sparked days of demonstrations in Pittsburgh demanding justice before his funeral, as protesters questioned police officer Michael Rosfeld's use of deadly force. On Sept. 20, 2016, Keith Lamont Scott, a 43year-old African- American, was fatally shot by police in the city of Charlotte in North Carolina, southeastern United States, sparking protests by African-Americans against racial discrimination and injustice by police. On Aug. 13, 2016, a confrontation between police and protestors turned violent in Milwaukee in the mid-western U.S. state of Wisconsin, after a police officer killed an armed 23year-old African-American trying to escape from two police officers who had stopped his car.
Furthermore, in April 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25year-old African-American, died in a Baltimore hospital after he was arrested for possessing what the police alleged to be an illegal switchblade. Gray's death sparked protests and riots in the city in northeastern United States. One year later, U.S. prosecutors dropped all charges against six police officers accused in the arrest and death of Gray. On Aug. 9, 2014, another 18year-old African-American, Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking over two weeks of unrest and clashes between protesters and law enforcement in the town where most of the population are black. On July 17, 2014, a cellphone recorded an unarmed black man, Eric Garner, repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" when a New York officer held him in a chokehold before his death in police custody. Garner's last words were the same ones Floyd spoke as the officer knelt on his neck before he died. Almost five years later, federal prosecutors said the officer who caused the death of Garner would not face criminal charges. In July 2012, protestors clashed with police over two separate shootings in the city of Anaheim, southern California. Manuel Diaz, 25, and Joel Mathew Acevedo, 21, who were claimed by the police as gang members, were shot dead by police officers.
The existence of racially-based discriminatory behaviour has already been proven by the scenarios above. Broad evidence exists about ethnically or racially motivated discrimination in the American labour market, healthcare delivery, education, real estate market, mortgage market and in public goods. We are aware that important differences exist in the level of socially adequateness of expressing racism openly in different countries. This is an integral part of the level of racism, since the more openly and uncontested racism can be expressed, the more likely it is to have an impact on the lives of black people and peoples’ perception on black people as being violent with criminalities.
Evidence shows that exposure to racial discrimination leads to poor health among the ethnic minority individuals in adolescence and throughout the lifespan. In the United States, racism is a cultural system of values, symbols, and institutions which claim white racial superiority and use this assertion to subordinate minorities, which are considered inferior. Racial discrimination is the enactment of this cultural system in behaviours by white supremacists who harm black minorities. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses provide support for the notion that racial discrimination is related to multiple forms of illness, including depressive symptoms, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, hypertension, and diabetes. These negative health consequences may be exacerbated during adolescence, a developmental transition marked by enhanced socio emotional processing. Racial discrimination is harmful in the United States that have a pronounced history of racism.
It is proven that racial discrimination is a prevalent encounter against the black minority in the United States. There is interpersonal discrimination and this is attributed to race, ethnicity, or ancestry. Latino youth and their families have also been impacted by anti-Latino and anti-immigrant rhetoric, a draconian enforcement of immigration policies leading to more deportations, detentions, and family separations, and stigmatisation through negative media portrayals and calls for mass deportations.
In conclusion, all these hullabaloo point to the fact that African leaders need to develop our places of nationality, in order to attract these African-Americans back home in Africa, their ancestral home. Ghanaian people, through their leadership, launched a programme, “The Year of Return, Ghana 2019” for African-Americans to visit Ghana. It was an initiative of the government of Ghana along with U.S. based, The Adinkra Group, which was intended to encourage African diasporans to come to Africa, specifically Ghana, to settle and invest in the continent. It was formally launched by President Nana Akufo-Addo in September 2018 in Washington, D.C. as a programme for Africans in the diaspora to unite with Africans. The year 2019 was symbolic as it commemorated 400 years since the first enslaved Africans touched down in Jamestown, Virginia in the United States. Many African Americans who visited Ghana shared their stories regarding their experiences in Ghana during the Year of Return. They really appreciated the African continent, therefore, our leaders should take the entire development of the continent very serious, to enable us gain recognition in the global political realm.
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