AS a black person, a person of colour or a mixed raced person, depending on where you are in the world and what label society has placed upon you, life can be often be challenging because of racism. The recent murder of an African-American man, George Floyd, by police officers, has sparked an unprecedented wave of protests and riots throughout the United States of America and many other countries in the world.
Mr. Floyd’s murder was captured on camera as officers were attempting to apprehend him for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit bill. In the video, we can see the police officers apprehend Mr. Floyd on the ground and appeared to have the situation under control. The main perpetrator of Mr. Floyd’s murder, Derek Chauvin, then placed his knee upon Mr. Floyd’s neck and used the weight of his body to pin Mr. Floyd’s neck to the ground. Mr. Floyd is heard complaining that he cannot breathe in the video. He eventually passed away.
Mr. Floyd’s death is reminiscent of Eric Garner’s murder in New York when he too was apprehended by the police and placed in a choke hold which also contributed and led to his death. Mr. Garner’s murder was also caught on camera and he too was heard saying that he could not breathe.

What is truly outrageous and totally reprehensible is that the police officers who beat, strangle, shoot and kill the citizens they have been chosen to protect, more often than not, escape the hand of the law and are never prosecuted for the crimes they commit. The state has protected them in this way. But how long will this go on? How long does the state expect citizens to witness murder at the hands of those who we pay to protect and serve us?

Racism for black people and people of colour is complex. On the one hand, there is structural and institutional racism which is responsible for the lack of representation of black people and people of colour in key governmental and institutional roles. It is also the over-representation of black people and people of colour in certain institutional systems such as the prison and healthcare systems. Then there is the racism we experience at a non-governmental, societal level, racism from our peers, if you would have it. This often materialises in many ways through different overt and covert microaggressions perpetrated by the racists citizens against those who they disdain. It comes from all angles.

There are no words to describe what it is like for a black person or person of colour to witness this level of barbarism often meted out to us by those who have been chosen by the state to serve and protect its citizens. And even though we have become used to seeing our people murdered by police officers in this manner, it is no less painful. In fact, I would argue that it has become so commonplace to see and hear of these types of murders that we run of the risk of them becoming normalised. And that is precisely what we cannot allow to happen.

The normalisation of violence in our society is down to a number of reasons and the entertainment and media industries continue to play a key role in its normalisation. It might be controversial to state this but it is a fact commonly known within the black community that during most films, the black characters usually die or are killed first, barely making it to the film’s credits. Even though persons might argue that it is fiction and only entertainment, why then has this become the norm? It stinks of predictive programming, in my opinion.

The media also stands to be accused of being institutionally racist in that the vast majority of media coverage to do with anything black people or people of colour related is often biased, negative and prejudicial. The painting of black people and people of colour in the media seems pointed at creating a narrative of deserving less than or being undesirable. For those who have never experienced racism, the subtle undercurrents are often difficult to detect so it might seem controversial to state that most media houses are structurally racist. But they are.

The uproar that we are witnessing now has been brewing for centuries because black and brown people have been targeted, beaten, poisoned and degraded in every possible manner for far too long. From slavery, through to Jim Crow, to the fight for civil rights, black bodies have littered the roads and pavements of many nations. And it has to stop.
Many have decried the violent and destructive nature of the protests and argue that despite what we continue to witness, there is no excuse for violence and the destruction of property. Some people seem to be more upset with the fact that people are damaging and destroying property as compared to the fact that black and brown people are being disproportionately targeted and murdered by the state police. How absurd is it that this is the world in which we live.

Thankfully, my generation will not endure the abuse our ancestors endured. We will not protest peacefully against a state that teaches us that we must be non-violent but then uses violence against us at any and every given opportunity. A state that tolerates murder so long as it is perpetrated by the right person against the wrong sort of person. My generation will continue to mobilise, assemble and apply pressure to this draconian system until it crumbles.