Dear Editor,
I took note when our prime minister sent condolence to the United States when 40-plus people in a LGBT location were killed in Florida, but I am yet to hear Andrew Holness address the situation in the United States concerning the killing by US police of black people without due process and under very questionable circumstances, with videotape images showing the officers’ questionable actions.
I watched a
CNN programme call
Black, White & Blue: America 2016, and host Don Lemon mentioned that over 500 black people had been killed by police officers since the start of 2016. The statistics do not lie: the United States has a big problem with race, and law enforcement is one of the main avenues where it is played out. We see the same problems at Customs in the United States.
So, while the United States is pontificating to us about human trafficking they have still not addressed their nasty history of racism and bigotry even as a black president tells people that the United States is the greatest nation on Earth.
I must applaud trauma surgeon Dr Brian Williams’ confession that, while trying to save the white officers in the Dallas attack, he wrestled with how even he himself is treated on the streets by the police in general as a black man.
The Dallas police chief’s many speeches tell me that from slavery until today, we still have black officials employed by white officials who tend to not show minimal concern for their own black people. The Dallas police chief earns US$191,000 per year.
Barack Obama has, up to now, not used his powerful office to put measures in place to stem racism. While I know that he cannot adjudicate on each and every bigoted white person, he can do executive orders, just as Harry S Truman did in desegregating the military right after World War II. Truman, a Democrat, had to do this because Congress would not have passed it. It was the same thing with Eisenhower, a Republican, who enforced the Supreme Court ruling that instructed the desegregation of schools.
Leaders in the Third World must not stand by while the United States and its leadership play out this hypocrisy of being the land of the free when people of colour in the United States still wonder if they will be the next victim of cops on a racist rampage whilst “serving and protecting”.
Mark Trought
marktrought@gmail.com
I took note when our prime minister sent condolence to the United States when 40-plus people in a LGBT location were killed in Florida, but I am yet to hear Andrew Holness address the situation in the United States concerning the killing by US police of black people without due process and under very questionable circumstances, with videotape images showing the officers’ questionable actions.
I watched a
CNN programme call
Black, White & Blue: America 2016, and host Don Lemon mentioned that over 500 black people had been killed by police officers since the start of 2016. The statistics do not lie: the United States has a big problem with race, and law enforcement is one of the main avenues where it is played out. We see the same problems at Customs in the United States.
So, while the United States is pontificating to us about human trafficking they have still not addressed their nasty history of racism and bigotry even as a black president tells people that the United States is the greatest nation on Earth.
I must applaud trauma surgeon Dr Brian Williams’ confession that, while trying to save the white officers in the Dallas attack, he wrestled with how even he himself is treated on the streets by the police in general as a black man.
The Dallas police chief’s many speeches tell me that from slavery until today, we still have black officials employed by white officials who tend to not show minimal concern for their own black people. The Dallas police chief earns US$191,000 per year.
Barack Obama has, up to now, not used his powerful office to put measures in place to stem racism. While I know that he cannot adjudicate on each and every bigoted white person, he can do executive orders, just as Harry S Truman did in desegregating the military right after World War II. Truman, a Democrat, had to do this because Congress would not have passed it. It was the same thing with Eisenhower, a Republican, who enforced the Supreme Court ruling that instructed the desegregation of schools.
Leaders in the Third World must not stand by while the United States and its leadership play out this hypocrisy of being the land of the free when people of colour in the United States still wonder if they will be the next victim of cops on a racist rampage whilst “serving and protecting”.
Mark Trought
marktrought@gmail.com