Our eyes have been watching
God for a very long time now. We have been waiting like children, for justice
and the time of our redemption. Our voices have echoed long through the night
and we await the dawn.
What does the morning hold for the children
of Africa? Will it be persecution as it's always been, or will it hold the
light of change? We search the horizon for answers, but it is always at a
distance.
Our struggles have been difficult; prejudice
is a hard mountain to climb and it is deeply rooted in America. Why is it so
difficult for people to live together and simply respect one another?
As a people, blacks have suffered greatly at
the hands of others. Our natural rights as men and women have been taken from
us time and time again.
The Constitution took away our humanity and
life by declaring, that three white men were equivalent to five black men. The
justice system took our dignity by saying that we were not good enough to live
with white people; so the Supreme Court in a landmark decision introduced that
separate but equal is equal; an idea which might have had dome basis had blacks
been given equivalent resources and opportunities. The Constitution, however
has since then been amended and has been transformed into a formidable document
of equality and justice. But, it is unfortunate that its provisions are not
enforced within the United States.
Many people will say that things have changed
and so they have, the methods of stripping us of our rights have changed and
become subtler. Our rights are now taken from us legally where we can do very
little to fight back. This does not mean that the brutality has stopped. In
fact, it seems to have grown, and is growing at a rate that is too frightening
to believe. Incidences of racial violence against black are most often ignored
or swept under the rug, unless it catches media attention, and even then
justice may not be served. Rodney king, beaten on camera by four police
officers that were initially exonerated; Officer Francis Livotti, acquitted by
the state of New York of criminal charges for the killing of Anthony Baez.
Amadou Diallo, black student who was viciously gunned down by four New York
Police Officers, all four were later acquitted, the defense that got them
acquitted, they thought his wallet was a weapon.
For us laws are given and taken, but all men
and women are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights,
which have nothing to do with man-made laws and right. Man cannot give these rights
and certain have no rights to take them.
People must learn that we need each other,
red, yellow, black, or white. When we learn this, we will have taken the first
step towards peace and harmony in this world. This however, seems to be as
distant as the horizon, and so black people must continue to fight for the
justice we have so long craved.
The injustices are so many that we sometimes feel that God is dead, but he is alive and watching us just as much as we are watching him. We are wondering when he is going to intervene on our behalf and he is wondering why we are waiting for something we can do ourselves. Perhaps when we come together as a people, when we properly educate ourselves and fight together for what we want, perhaps then our waiting will be over and justice will at last come.
By Errol W. Angus
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