Racial Oppression Groundhog Day

I was reading HOW WE FIGHT WHITE SUPREMACY by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin and came across a line in one of the essays in the book that read "Why do people refuse to learn the lessons of our abundant history of racial oppression?' kind of Groundhog Day." With all of the current events related to race occurring as I write, this line leaped up at me from the page or in my case the Ipad screen. I thought the phrasing of the question/sentence was a perfect description of where we are racially in 2020. So, I went online to do a quick research of the movie Groundhog Day and found the following synopsis:

 

A cynical TV weatherman finds himself reliving the same day over and over again when he goes on location to the small town of Punxsutawney to film a report about their annual Groundhog Day. He needed to see his disrespect of them through many incarnations of the day and change his attitude. Only when his attitude was proved to be changed by his love of Rita, was he able to escape the time loop.

Needless to say, I intentionally bolded and underlined keywords in the synopsis to emphasize the parallels with our society and world today. Like in the plot of the movie, sadly, we are reliving the blatant display of racism, racial hatred, and supremacy over and over again. Every day we are seeing on the news and through social media the brutalization of People of Color by Caucasians that is no different than what occurred historically hundreds of years ago and what I am calling based on that line in the book, "racial oppression groundhog day." 

Let's read just three (as I am sure there were many more) of the headlines appearing over the last few days, shall we...

• Four Minneapolis officers fired after video shows one kneeling ...
• Ahmaud Arbery killing being investigated as federal hate ...
• White woman fired after calling police on black man who asked her to leash her dog

In the first two instances, an African-American male was killed (Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd) and in the third, Christian Cooper, an African-American male could have been killed as an intentionally deadly Emmett Till like scenario was set up by Amy Cooper (no relation) a Caucasian woman. 

Ironically, Colin Kaepernick, an NFL quarterback started protesting police brutality and the treatment of minorities by kneeling during the National Anthem during the opening of the NFL games. The movement caught on with players around the league. Kaepernick went on record saying "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color." Kaepernick and his colleagues were lambasted by Donald Trump as he blasted them saying "Get that son of a bitch off the field."  I find it interesting that the officers in Minneapolis nor the good ole' boys in Georgia were referred to as "Son's of bitches"  by the president. I'm sure they fall into the category of "very fine people."  It was not okay for the protesters to kneel while the anthem was being played, but it was okay for that officer to kneel on a Black man's neck. Something is wrong with that picture. So very, very wrong. 

Okay, let's parallel our racial situation to the Groundhog Day synopsis. 

• Cynical TV weatherman ------------- Racist/Supremacist
• Rita ----------------------------- Everyone else who is not like or different from the racist/supremest 

In the movie, the change did not occur until the cynical weatherman was shown and realized how disrespectful and hateful he was and made the conscious decision to change his disposition; his view of everyone else who was not like him; his attitude. Then he had to "prove" that he was really changed and that proof was in his showing love to others. It was only then that he was able to escape the time loop. 

We will not be able to escape the racial time loop until all of those who are racists/supremacists either make the change like the cynical TV weatherman did or we will have to wait until they all die off of the planet with the hopes that the following generations know better and refuse to be a part of any type of racist/supremacists views and beliefs. Love is the key to escaping the time loop. 

It seems we have gone backward in time where it is open season on Black men or anyone for that matter who is not a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) male. Something has got to give, otherwise, Rapper, Ice Cube may have a point when he states  “How long will we go for Blue On Black Crime until we strike back?”  Something to critically think about. 

As The World Watched in 1963; The World Is Watching in 2012

Just as television in 1963 was able to move the Civil Rights Movement from a national issue to a world wide issue, television along with the Internet is placing the same spotlight on the issues of race and gun violence in 2012.  For those of us old enough to remember the turbulent Sixties, the world was able to see a horrific attack on young civil rights protesters by the Birmingham, Alabama, police. The world watched as the Birmingham Police Department decided to unleash police dogs on the unarmed protesters, while the Birmingham Fire Department decided to turn on fire hoses and hydrants to disperse the young black demonstrators, most of whom were children. Just by looking at T.V. you could virtually feel the force of the water coming out of those fire hoses pushing those young, black protesters down flooding streets like garbage swept away from the curb during a street cleaning.

Many are espousing that too much is being made over the recent Trayvon Martin case, the shooting death of a seventeen year old unarmed teenager by an "overzealous" neighborhood watch marshal. Many are saying would you all please just shut up about this case already, while others are saying "I don't see what the big deal is because it happens everyday; why this case?"  Well like the dogs and hoses televised in 1963, the 911 calls placed to the police by George Zimmerman have been heard around the world and the myriad "hoodie" protests have been seen around the world.  This case has indeed brought worldwide attention to the unnecessary killings that keep occurring particularly involving young African American males. The issue is bigger than race as there are multiple issues in this case. Fundamentally, the fact that Zimmerman is part Hispanic, racially places him in no different boat than Trayvon as Hispanics are viewed as a minority just as African Americans and in most cases share the same plight. This is much bigger than race. This is about gun violence, this is about mindsets, this is about needless fear, this is about making judgement without facts and about senseless laws that need to be changed. 

We cannot let up the pressure on this case. The Stand Your Ground Law does not make sense because if the tables were turned would Trayvon Martin been able to stand on the Stand Your Ground Law?  I doubt it very seriously. In fact, most likely Trayvon would be sitting in a jail cell for the very same reasons that George Zimmerman claims made him suspicious. He was wearing a hoodie.  The very same vilification that Trayvon is suffering in death would have been the same vilification he would have suffered in life as to why he was sitting in a jail cell for killing a neighborhood watch marshal in a gated community in Florida.  Just as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his letter from a Birmingham jail detailing why we cannot wait, the same applies in 2012 as to why we cannot let up and give in on this case. There are other cases like this, but none have received the worldwide exposure that this case has received, therefore providing us with an opportunity to gain worldwide support. 

So for those who wish that this would just go away.... it can't.  For those who wish that we would just STFU.......we can't. For those who think that we are making too much of a big deal about this.......we are not. For those who think this is just about race....it is not.  We cannot let this die. We must remain vocal, visible, and vigilant until laws such as the Stand Your Ground Law is abolished and that mindsets are changed. Malcolm Gladwell does a very good job in describing what was going on in George Zimmerman's head prior to his pulling that trigger in chapter six of his book BLINK. (I encourage you to read it, if nothing else but that chapter).  

We will not give up the fight!!!! The world is watching.