Burn, baby, burn — history repeats itself. We are now witnessing the birth of the second civil rights movement in the U.S. and Canada since the 1960s. Unfulfilled expectations fuel it. American Black ghettos are burning again as they did some 50 years ago.
I lived through the civil rights movement of the 1960s and saw the NYC ghettos burn at close range when I worked for a civil rights group. Like many others, in the intervening years, I hoped that some real progress had been made in correcting the many systemic political and economic inequities inflicted on the Black community in the U.S. and Canada. I was wrong.
Overt racism was no longer considered polite behaviour at cocktail parties, rather it was alluded to in hushed tones. In reality, racism only went underground to emerge as today's Alt-right or White Nationalist movement. Trump has legitimized racism and has made it respectable. He has turned loose the racist Furies. In reality however, little has changed. And the ghettos smoulder.
Historically, local police have always been used to keep Blacks down. Today police brutality, racial profiling, carding and other techniques are the daily reality experienced by many Blacks in both American and Canadian cities. Today police departments no longer pretend to engage in community policing. They have been militarized and use counterinsurgency tactics to pacify the ghettos.
Every generation of political activists must generate its own leadership. The Black community has a history of inspirational and militant leaders to emulate, including W.E.B. Dubois, MLK, Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael. As a political credo I say, " Black and white, unite and fight."
Richard Deaton,
Stanley Bridge
