Policy Claim Essay
Freedom and Justice for People of African Descent
The claim of the ensuing essay is to persuade the audience to be conscious of the lack of justice and freedom for people of African descent. Freedom and justice for the people of Africa and those of African descent living in different parts of the world have been and remains to be an emotive topic. In Africa, an interrogation of historical chronologies in the 18th and 19th centuries paints a picture of an oppressed continent in Europe’s hands. From illegal and unfair exploitation of its mineral resources to trampling on African human rights through such practices as slavery, the European and American powers proved their disregard for justice and freedom for Africans. Like the United States of America, the first and subsequent generations of blacks faced some of the worst crimes against the human race in other parts of the world. Slavery, in its peak, condemned black Americans to brutality and demeaning practices that only worked to compound racism and discrimination against the Negro community. As a result, it was incumbent upon the oppressed black population to rise against these white supremacist tendencies. That marked the beginning of mass actions and calls for freedom and justice for the people of African descent, a pursuit that continues to this day, especially after the killing of George Floyd. While the centuries of the spirited fight against the monsters of discrimination and racism have brought about a better society as hoped and prayed by such Negro civil rights leaders like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., freedom and justice remain elusive for the black population.
Consequently, the debate around whether or not the black population world over is still facing oppression from different quarters remains on. Two factions offer contrasting arguments on this matter. While the loudest voices submit that the people of African descent are yet to arrive at the promised land of justice, freedom, and liberty as guaranteed by the American dream and the United Nations Convention on Human Rights, some dim perspectives and opinions argue contrary. The latter group believes that the contemporary universe offers an open platform for the development and just life of everyone regardless of race. According to most civil rights groups within and outside the USA, these sentiments are misled opinions that are devoid of truth (Westin). For them, any claim that contemporary society offers equality, liberty, justice, and freedom is the highest level of fallacy, offers Agyepong. According to a human rights watch report, there are many instances of racism and discrimination in different parts of the world, even today. The report further claims that democracy and civilization have done little to deliver the human race from the chains of racial segregation and other injustices.
For instance, in Africa, nations like South Africa are still battling racism and discrimination twenty-six years after attaining its independence (Gates). An interrogation of the Republic of South Africa’s population demographics reveals that it is one of the countries in Africa that is most racially diverse. While Africans remain the majority, there is a significant population of Caucasian whites, Indians, and Chinese. Despite the spirited fight for independence from the hands of the English regime, South Africans are still haunted by the white man’s presence. According to that nation’s black political leaders, it is not to say that they would like to have the whites vacate the country, but that the continued oppression in the hands of these very people should end. Gates paints a grim picture of the fact that the minority white community has the most significant land in the cumulative area compared to South Africans. While Africans are supposed to be free after independence in 1993, Africans in South Africa continue to fight for justice and freedom (Gates), a visible sign that African liberty, freedom, and righteousness remain elusive in different parts of the world people of African descent.
Furthermore, persons of African descent and Africans are still deemed second class human beings and citizens in different parts of the world. The white South African population is yet to subscribe to the idea that the land they have rightfully belongs to South Africans and that they should return it. Other Africans are being subjected to racist, discriminatory and demeaning treatment in countries like China and the United Arab Emirates (Gates), (“What Is It Like To Be Black In China?”). For the better part of the last decade, voices of revolution are getting louder by the day in South Africa as the political leadership of the EFF party led by Julius Malema continues to advocate for repatriation of land. Reports by various news agencies brought to light the shocking levels of racism that is still part and parcel of the Chinese culture. According to a media commentary and a black American civil rights activist, Dr. Umar Johnson, his recent visit to china-painted a grim picture of the sickening levels of racism in that country. In one of his interviews, Dr. Umar offers that racism in China is so bad that it is overt (“What Is It Like To Be Black In China?”). The Chinese are not afraid to discriminate upon and advance the idea that black people are inferior.
Additionally, Dr. Umar Johnson observes that there are particular night clubs, social joints, and neighborhoods that they could not go into. They were denied access on the grounds of their skin color. Reports by human rights watch in 2017 showed that people of African descent are targets of racism, discrimination, and dehumanizing practices in the Middle East (“What Is It Like To Be Black In China?”). Many Africans who end up in the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern nations searching for better jobs face mistreatment. The most vulnerable group of the lot are those that work as house helps, waiters and waitresses. It is unfortunate that while Africa is the most hospitable continent in the world, and that as Africans continue to roll the red carpet for foreigners, the favor is hardly returned in their nations.
On the other hand, the situation is so dire that black American and African civil rights leaders and politicians are beginning to raise alarm bells on Africa’s contemporary colonization. In its quest to expand its economic muscle world and compete with world economies, China has targeted Africa and the Caribbean nations, albeit with malice. Research on the influence of China on African countries paints a worrying trend that compounds the practice of racism and discrimination against Africans in Africa. As many African administrations award many of its infrastructural contracts to Chinese companies, the resulting economic repercussions are laying grounds and predisposing Africans to Chinese economic and social discrimination (“Kenya Must Face Up To Rising Claims Of Racial Discrimination By Chinese Against Locals”). Most, if not all, Chinese firms that work in different countries of Africa hardly employ Africans. Instead, they import more than 90 percent of their workforce from China. It gets worse when reports show that the few Africans who work in these Chinese projects are treated as second-class citizens in their own countries and continents. The systemic and sustained importation of Chinese workers to Africa (while there is enough human resource in Africa that can do the same jobs) and unfair treatment of the few Africans lucky to be recruited, is not only an economic crime but a travesty of the call for the abolishment of racism and discrimination.
Besides, Police brutality against America’s black population is another manifestation of the fact that African Americans are yet to be treated with justice. In the eyes of many African Americans, policing has always been used as a tool with which to control race (Agyepong). According to Agyepong, the history of the Negro and civil rights struggle cannot be complete without mentioning the role of police injustice on the populace involved. While proponents of the idea that the black American population involved in the riots and strikes in pursuit of freedom and justice were chaotic and that the force used on them by police was warranted, reports by the Human Rights Watch disputed those sentiments. An interrogation of what happened in the North and South at the time shows that the police department always propagated segregation and racism (Agyepong). More often than not, black civil rights mass actions and protests were disrupted by the police that attacked, beat up, and sometimes killed some of those that took part in the process, offers Dorn. The police not only defended but also enforced racial injustice against the black population (Dorn). The contemporary times continue to witness division on the matter of police brutality. Conservative white supremacists are yet to admit that African Americans are still being subjected to institutionalized racism. Theirs is the opinion that blacks are no longer the target of unfair treatment by the police, citing the fact that the legal system is conscious of the need for justice. On the flip side, reports of police brutality in black neighborhoods are still common, and George Floyd’s case is the most recent reminder of that.
Moreover, studies conducted on the prevalence of police violence indicate that African American males are ‘21 times more likely to be brutally attacked and killed through police violence than their white counterparts.’ Further, an expose by The New York Times submits that black Americans continue to suffer at the hands of police as they are often harassed and treated with indignity at the hands of police. As a result, the struggle for the liberation of the black community in America is still on even in the contemporary times “A VISION FOR BLACK LIVES: POLICY DEMANDS FOR BLACK POWER, FREEDOM, & JUSTICE.” The last decade has witnessed some of the most controversial and blatant targeting of African American youths by the police. Ironically, while the police force is composed of personnel drawn from both the black and white races, it appears like most violence meted against blacks is often prescribed by Caucasian descent policemen.
On the contrary, there is yet to be a mention of a black police officer attacking a black man or even a white one. It is in the backdrop of these unfortunate trends that the African American population of the United States of America has taken to the streets to protest police violence. It goes without saying that despite the gains made over the years in pursuit of justice, freedom, and liberties, the police remain part and parcel of the problem. In as much as most racist attacks are often expressed covertly in modern society, police brutality remains overt (Agyepong). Other research pieces have determined that unarmed victims of killings in the hands of police are often the black minority. Thus, people of African descent deem police as the face behind bigger inequality systems inherent in housing, education, criminal, employment, and justice systems.
Despite strict legal measures and policies that prohibit racial discrimination at workplaces, racism is still prevalent in the United States of America’s labor market (Matthews). An interrogation of employment patterns and distribution of wealth in the society between the white and black communities reveal disparities. Research on the human resource and recruitment patterns in the US showed that black applicants of jobs are 50 percent less likely to be employed, offers Matthews. In a study to investigate this issue, researchers allocated white-sounding names and black-sounding names while making job applications. The results showed that the former group was the preference for many recruiting firms as they received callbacks for interviews. Therefore, that compounds the grim reality of the fact that race is still an essential player in the USA’s employment landscape. While the country’s legal system has established statutes that criminalize work-based racism and discrimination, there is no denying that African Americans are still deemed inferior or unfit on their skin color (Matthews). Most studies have cited employer prejudice and perception of companies that the black race is inferior to the white one in terms of productivity. There is also the notion that race is a determinant of the productivity levels of a people in general, a notion that must be deconstructed going forward.
Interestingly, the faction that is yet to appreciate the reality of black injustice and inequality has tried to advance a shallow argument. According to them, the enlightenment of employers, programs of affirmative action, and motives of profit maximization by companies are factors that have combined to eliminate racial discrimination. According to this group, employers are currently hiring based on an applicant’s competency as opposed to the prevalent school of thought of the race. In a bid to deconstruct the idea that racism and discrimination continue to plague the USA’s labor market, they offer that researchers are incapable of observing some qualities of job candidates as can do employers. However, many studies have debunked this theory suggesting that economic segregation is alive. These pieces of research have tabled the fact that most employees of African descent are often paid 25 percent less salary at employment compared to their white counterparts (Matthews). Such tendencies and unfair treatment of the black race have led to the high levels of inequalities in income and distribution of wealth.
In conclusion, an interrogation of the allegations, facts, and statistics that pertain to the subject of black freedom and justice paints a clear picture that is evident to every level-headed fellow that seeks knowledge and understanding on the matter. From police brutality, institutionalized discrimination, mass incarcerations of black males, economic segregation, and exploitation of people of the color world over to the oppressive legal system, the writing is on the wall. Research on some of the elements of this topic has been deconstructed because they lack evidence and, therefore, not possible in this discourse. However, there is no denying that most of the sentiments are fronted to advance the idea that freedom and justice for the black population remain elusive are true. As such, it is clear that people of African descent worldwide are still in pursuit of the promised land of justice and freedom from oppressive powers. Be that as it is, I call upon everyone interested in pursuing the truth (facts back that) on this matter to wake up to the reality that the black person is yet to be free and that he continues to be a victim of systemic injustices. Emotions aside, reviewing available statistics and findings on the different aspects of this issue would be a travesty of considerable proportions to hold that Africans and African Americans are free and treated with justice. The school of thought that persons of African descent, regardless of the spirited civil rights calls and gains, still lack justice and freedom, is a compelling case.
Works Cited
Agyepong, Tera Eva. The Criminalization of Black Children: Race, Gender, and Delinquency in Chicago’s Juvenile Justice System, 1899-1945. 2018. Justice, Power, and Politics. Web.
“A VISION FOR BLACK LIVES: POLICY DEMANDS FOR BLACK POWER, FREEDOM, & JUSTICE.” Fellowship 80.1-10 (2016): 10. Web.
Gates, Henry Louis, and Jennifer Burton, eds. Call and response: Key debates in African American studies. WW Norton & Company, 2011.
“Kenya Must Face Up To Rising Claims Of Racial Discrimination By Chinese Against Locals.” Quartz Africa. N.p., 2019. Web. 22 Apr. 2019.
Matthews, David, and Le Blanc, Paul. “A Freedom Budget for All Americans: Recapturing the Promise of the Civil Rights Movement in the Struggle for Economic Justice Today.” Capital & Class 38.3 (2014): 646. Web.
“What Is It Like To Be Black In China?.” Inkstone. N.p., 2019. Web. 22 Apr. 2019.