Justice: Easy to spell

Justice has been done for the family of George Floyd with the conviction of Derek Chavin. This was described in the US media as historic. What is ironic about the use of the word historic is that over
150 years after the passing of the 13th Amendment, Lincoln’s Emancipation Declaration and the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement there is a sense of joy, relief and surprise that an African American gets justice. This trial was not only about George Floyd but a whole criminal justice system, a criminal justice system that bears down heavily on the poor and minorities. A dysfunctional policing structure and culture that not that long ago, whose main job was to enforce segregation and a security apparatus again, not that long ago that saw Martin Luther King Jnr, Malcolm X , Bobby Searl, Angela Davis and even James Baldwin as a threat to America’s white, entitled, comfortable and Christian middle class.

A criminal justice system where African American males account for 34% of male prison population, while in total, African Americans account for 13% of the entire US population. If anyone believes this is all about crime and a community’s propensity to crime, this a false narrative . As Tony Blair, who I quote tentatively said “tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime”. The causes will include education , poverty, income and wealth inequality, institutionalised racism and discrimination and finally, not to forget the B.S. of the American Dream and its meritocratic foundation. In the richest country in the world healthcare is available not at the point of need but the point of your pen. Just one stat which goes to the heart of the matter, the Federal Reserve reported that white families have a median and average family wealth of $188000 and $983000 and black families have the equivalent of 15% of this, at $24000 and $142000. This difference is not about ability, desire or ambition but it is clearly about equality of opportunity, equity and America’s original sin.

This could be the moment that shows America to be a nation and keeps it on the track to deliver as laid out in article one of the constitution, “ a more perfect Union”, though the events of January 6th and the 4 years leading up to it, show a different trajectory.

As the great Sam Cooke put it “ Change Goona Come” but time is running out.

Let us know what you think in the comments section👇