WITH the advent and proliferation of information communication technologies (ICT), the world is a mere global village. Very little, if anything, happens today — be it in private or public, in the domestic or foreign sphere — that persons external to the issue are unaware of. Where media, formal and social, have made the Internet a medium/source for sharing events, information, ideas and knowledge — internal or external — once placed on such domain, it can become one of global proportions, galvanising support in one direction or the other.Such is the situation that the group Black Lives Matter — which grew out of African-American concerns for protection of their right to life and an end to treatment dissimilar to that meted out to their white counterpart under the law — has become a global phenomenon. This evolving concern, whether real or mere perception, that there exists in the USA different treatment for whites vis-a-vis blacks, referred to as ‘white privilege’, has sparked a modern-day revolution to effect change in policies and actions; to topple discriminatory laws; and to see enforcement of laws that would bring about equality in the system.

This activism has moved from the streets, as in the instance of Trayvon Martin of Florida — the black youth who had been wearing a hoodie and going about his business in a neighbourhood in which it was felt he ought not to be, and he was shot and killed by a white man named George Zimmerman on the pretext that he looked suspicious and that Zimmerman was exercising his right under the state’s ‘Stand your ground law’ — to university campuses, where young academics are poignantly advancing the argument that there exist deep-seated relations, and that they, as a people, receive a certain treatment, both on campus and in the wider society, because of how they look.

Evidence of police mistreatment and profiling of African-Americans that resulted in deaths — as revealed from the dashboard camera in police vehicles and citizens’ recording of these and other human rights violations — remain an angst in the black community. The right to life is sacred, and where a person may have committed an infraction, perceived or real; or regardless of how that person may be despised; it is the responsibility of the court, under the law, to dispense justice.

Black Lives Matter has taken its activism to the political arena, causing politicians to sit up, listen, and act. Its members have both crashed and attended political rallies, and have demanded that candidates address their concerns, since not only as human beings and citizens, but moreso as a voting bloc, their welfare in the nation’s body politic must be factored in; and this development represents a seriousness through which the issues are being pursued. Presidential candidates have now placed these concerns into their platforms, addressing these matters publicly, making known policy proposals and what systems ought to be put in place to ensure a level playing field for all.

It is not that this group has not attracted condemnation in some quarters and been misunderstood in other quarters, nor is it that there may not be need to improve on their strategies; but when one gets beyond the apparent to look at where this group is coming from, it speaks directly into what we here would say ‘who feels it knows it.’ And this is what must ultimately be of concern if there is desire to improve human relations and secure a harmonious environment.

President Barack Obama, considered the world’s most powerful and influential politician, himself black, weighed in on the matter by saying, “I think everybody understands all lives matter. I think the reason that the organisers used the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ was not because they were suggesting nobody else’s lives matter.” He went on to say that the African-American protests and their expressions of concern were not contrived, but were based on a “legitimate issue”, and that “It’s real, and there’s a history behind it, and we have to take it seriously.”

In weighing in on the matter, Obama has not only brought to the public forum a sense of decency and level-headedness in addressing divisive and deep-seated issues, but has, by extension, appealed to the humanness of mankind — that all are equal, and all should be treated with respect and dignity. This is leadership; for, at the end of the day, if we want to get along, we can only do so when there is respect for the other, and there is equal treatment meted out to the other. And it always helps when the voices of reason add their input to the debate, rather than stay silent.

And as Americans continue to have open, frank and honest conversations on race, racism and race relations, shaping policies, implementing programmes and revisiting laws, what is certain is that, while you cannot legislate the heart, you can legislate behaviours. The USA, in declaring its independence from Britain, established a nation propounding this principle: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

That nation’s constitution enshrines the equality of humankind. And given that these tenets remain self-evident, then attendant laws, policies and programmes will have to be instituted to bring about equality in the system.

And this is the crux of the matter for African-Americans: All lives matter, including ours, and we are taking a stand in ensuring it happens. The race relations struggle in the USA is not only a struggle to maintain the soul of the nation and the principles under which it was founded. It is also testimony of what can be achieved when a stand is taken. Unmistakably, the activism of Black Lives Matter will be replicated in various forms in other societies, since, in this ICT era, this group has set the tone of action to achieve improvement in race relations around the world, including here.

The United Nations, established to bring about world peace after World War II, in giving due recognition to a world order built on Human Rights, adopted and declared on 10th December 1948, in Article 7, that: “All are equal before the law, and are entitled, without any discrimination, to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration, and against any incitement to such discrimination.”
Man will reach for what is so proclaimed.