Almost 57 years after it was delivered, the essence of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech maintains its relevance in the United States. His words seem to capture the thinking of those protesting in the streets, “I say to you today, my friends… even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream… I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
The death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American, after a member of the police force kneed his neck to the ground for several minutes, has once again aroused the people’s anger. Over the week, protests have spread to cities across the country and led to curfews in many, with more than 4,000 arrests and the deployment of the National Guard in dozens of states. Being demanded is not only justice in this outrageous case of police brutality, but full respect for rights that have been violated and denied for many U.S. citizens, reflecting the frustration of social groups that have been marginalized for decades.
Racism, xenophobia, inequality and social injustice within U.S. society -paradoxically the richest country on the planet – are the real roots of the problem, the undisputed cause of the demonstrations. At this point, can anyone believe the imperial rhetoric that the United States is a paradigm of human rights or civil liberties worldwide?
The irrefutable facts include video of George Floyd repeating “I can’t breathe,” photographs of the violent clashes between police and protesters, images of two police cars intentionally driving into a crowd on a New York City street.
While the most serious disturbances reported in the country since 1968 rage, Sunday media reports indicated that President Donald Trump was taken to an emergency bunker, given protesters’ proximity to the White House, which, in an unprecedented event, had its lights turned off in the middle of the protests. In a tweet, Trump called the protesters “thugs” and threatened, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” a message that Twitter flagged for inciting violence.
In fact, this is the approach of the current U.S. administration: incitement to violence. Last April 30, the Cuban embassy in Washington D.C. suffered a terrorist attack with the complicit silence of the White House and the State Department.
The increasingly hostile rhetoric of U.S. authorities, their hateful policies and discourse that promote division, their encouragement of violence by supremacist groups and individuals, have plunged the country into a climate of insecurity and intolerance. In such an environment, only peace, brotherhood and the best human values can lead us along a more civilized path. Only in this way could Martin Luther King’s dream become a reality, as thousands of protesters aspire.
(Source: Granma)