USA TODAY: George Floyd’s death sparks demonstrations in Minneapolis, Memphis, and Los Angeles

[Toyin Falola]

George Floyd’s death sparks demonstrations in Minneapolis, Memphis, and Los Angeles
The death of George Floyd continued to ripple across the U.S. on Wednesday night with protests in Minneapolis, Memphis and Los Angeles.

Read in USA TODAY: https://apple.news/A39Q0c4J9QZeQ4yLu2y2Qfg


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[Michael Afolayan]

This is depressing - tragically depressing! It's not the first and, sadly, it won't be the last. Now, more than ever before, the system is set in place for the atrocity to grow its wings and spread even faster than the coronavirus. This is because the proverbial chief of the treasury has itching hands! 

Here is my exasperation: The poor black, mostly uneducated/half-educated will continue to be the ready victims. This, unfortunately, is because there no longer exists a MKJ, Rosa Park (or even white folks like Jonathan Daniels or Atticus Finch) willing to give his/her life challenging the establishment on behalf of the poor black race. It has become a class struggle, not a race conflict. Successful blacks folks are hardly on the frontline fighting the war today (or on the streets carrying the placards) because they are not the ones being directly victimized. They, therefore, talk about it on their privileged talk shows; write about it in their elitist print journals and social media; then face their businesses, intellectual pursuits; protect their children and grandchildren and move on. This is because it is now a model of what the Yoruba call "olórí dó'rí ę mú" (each one the watcher of his/her own head). Even sadder is the fact that those street protests are effervescent; they will die down as suddenly as they sprang up. In my lifetime of American sojourn, I could so easily count 20 of such. Wait for a few weeks, by a mere stroke of luck, the family of Floyd would be settled, given what attorneys call "nuisance money", served a gag order, and the story would go into oblivion, becoming another archival material for future references.

As week as the body might be perceived, this could be a good case for the World Court! America has never handled race issues fairly, especially with respect to African Americans and it's not about to do it, especially now. This is not just a civil rights matter; it boarders on human rights!

Michael O. Afoláyan

(Just thinking loud in my state of helplessness and exasperation)

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