George Floyd: America, now Third World country?

By Simon Abah

Sir: So much has been said and written about the United States of America: a great country, a land of the free where the ambitious from any part of the world can achieve life’s ambitions.

Supporters of America, point to Barack Obama and many others who have won opportunities not conceivable in many countries.

The country is great no-doubt; after all, she outspends other nations in protecting the world, in humanitarian ventures and her scientists through numerous researches have ended many global epidemics.

I worry about racism in America. This land of the free and hark back to Rodney King in the 1990(s). How come this great country has not been able to stem the tide of systematic bigotry since then?

Why should George Floyd die the way he did? The police officers felt no qualms even when they knew that they were being filmed. Their white skins didn’t crawl with revulsion. This is a classic case of Social Darwinism. White is supreme in America, and so white lives matter more than black lives. These police officers wouldn’t treat a white man the way they did to George Floyd.

It is a pity. How America is different from third world countries, where policing is only for the rich and the lives of poor people can be snuffed out by the same security outfit established to protect everybody without borders staggers my imagination?

It is bewildering that this kind of brutality can happen in America, where some lives are more valued than others. If George Floyd, a citizen of the United States could be treated the way he was in a manner fit for animals in Africa where there are no animal rights campaigners and killed, what opportunities would there be in America for an immigrant from Africa? “I cannot breathe,” didn’t resonate with these white policemen with their acts of idiocy.

Africans, sleep outside consulates for visits to a country with no respect for black lives.

If George Floyd where a white American, he wouldn’t have died the way he did. Dr. Martin Luther King struggled so hard to liberate humanity from being judged merely by the colour of their skin but counselled instead that they be judged by the content of their character. George Floyd was judged by the colour of his skin. Is there still an American dream?

What is the recruitment philosophy, policing strategy and domestic agenda of the police in America? People with no character are in its security outfit. How can criminals in security outfits protect all lives without discrimination?

• Simon Abah, Abuja.