The world was hypnotized by television in April due to two seemingly unrelated events to the Covid-19 pandemic.
One of them was the funeral of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, with all its colorful pageantry and pomp that distracted ordinary people for a few hours, allowing them to forget their fear and dread of the virus. People were fantasizing about the impossible dream. Even in death, the Royalty seemed to do better than us mortals.
The second was also about death, but this one seemingly about racism; however, in my opinion, it was about everything—the confrontations that exist between whites, blacks, rich, poor, those who have and those who do not, the core of social injustice and classism experienced not only in America but around the world.
The former police officer Chauvin, convicted of murder, was not alone. We, as a society, must share the blame. We are responsible for having unfortunate people like Floyd wandering the streets committing petty thefts, intoxicated by illegal drugs, aggressive and belligerent against authority—in this case, the police who arrested him—but his rebellious attitude was not merely against the police; it was against the system. The system that led him and so many other unfortunate minorities to suffer under a gigantic gap between communities.
The jubilant reaction of black people and a few other ethnicities is not a response to a jury verdict. It is a cry for help. It is a demonstration of solidarity against an unjust society. Racism played its part. Racism is an abject feeling and the subject of many books trying to explain the inexplicable.
Black communities for a number of reasons, among which is the historical past from the tragedy of slavery to the social barriers they encounter from birth to adulthood in this and many countries around the world.
White communities due to the fear of the stigma that black people can be dangerous, as they are mostly seen or perceived as uneducated and possibly drugged, and the majority of inmates in most prisons are indeed black. The very nature of our unjust society puts the black population at risk of committing crimes and, in the end, may end up in prison or worse, death
as we witnessed in Floyd’s case.
I know many readers may disagree that minorities with few opportunities in the land of opportunities are subject to bad street influences that lead them to bad outcomes. There are obviously exceptions. Oprah, Queen Latifah, many sports figures and athletes, actors, and many celebrities, but these are truly exceptions in our society.
We, as a society, must give opportunities to everyone regardless of color, religion, gender, and a citizen must be treated civilly and fairly. We are all responsible for Floyd’s death. We must try to correct this tragic and very sad moment in our history and turn it into an opportunity to improve our society.
And focus on our common enemy, the Covid virus.
DR. ALBERT LEVY
Family Physician
www.manhattanfamilypractice.com