On May 25, 2020, An African-American man named George Floyd was pinned down and killed by a white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. An unarmed and handcuffed Floyd was pushed on to the ground and the white officer kneeled on his neck for more than 8 minutes despite him shouting that he couldn’t breathe – until he lay there motionless. This incident brought back into limelight the inhumane murders or killings of unarmed and innocent black men
or boys in America.
Some bystanders evaded a long line of police officers to capture the video of the torture given to Floyd. These videos have risen to worldwide protests for justice to black people with the tagline #blacklivesmatter.
This was a much-needed trigger for the black community to protest against oppression suffered by our fellow brothers and sisters. In the last couple of days, I saw an influx
of tweets or messages highlighting the wonderful outpouring towards the Black Lives Matter movement from celebrities, friends, and family. Standing in solidarity with the so-called minorities or targeted communities is much more vital than ever. But while it's perfectly human to be concerned about or horrified by the treatment of George Floyd, the Indian reaction to this
incident is tainted with hypocrisy and selfishness. It calls for our country’s violent history with anti-blackness and racial prejudices.
My question is why many Indian privileged people are quick to speak about the racist movement and are all silent about the communal violence against minorities or even animals. I recently read an article about a person who puts a firecracker under an elephant who was pregnant. My question is to that man: What did the elephant or her kid do? Why are they being killed
inhumanely? In the recent past months, there are many mob lynching cases, student protests, and cases of islamophobia, homophobia, and other related cases. They were just discussed on certain news channels; some people made some tweets for 2-3 days after which it was shut down. It has come to such an extent that violence is now expected in India. Much of the global south has
been termed barbaric just due to their skin color or their religion. The idea that black or Muslim people are innately disposed to violence is still a shocking rhetoric, in our subconscious mind as well as a common political tool. More importantly, in India, the insane tenacity of caste continues to perpetuate this idea, creeping into the deep roots of our culture. Would the average upper class/upper-middle-class man react the same way to some sectarian violence in a small part of India as he did to the killing of George Floyd? The violence over injustice in the US as well as India is not due to the same reason.
The way we understand violence in India should not be dependent on how it's understood elsewhere like in the US. In the same way that in the US black lives are less valued than white lives, in India Dalit lives are undervalued than that of Brahmins. Isolated terrorist attacks in Europe or New Zealand are considered tragic but regular drone strikes on civilians in middle east countries are rarely acknowledged. I don’t understand people’s idea of humanity, does it not apply to people in these areas.
Though i know that the torture of George Floyd is unacceptable but isn’t the killing of like humans unacceptable too? From African students or tourists discriminated against in cities of India, to kids using other racist slurs for “fun teasing”, dark skin has always been culturally undermined by us Indians. Dreams of being fairer(By using Fairness products) run deep so much so that dark people are met with physical hostility and constant discrimination. When people go on social media to tweet on the black lives matter situation , I think to myself that we are forgetting to introspect our own actions and whereas are paying attention to our western counterparts. We conveniently ignore that we ourselves benefit from the system that continuously oppresses the lower sects of our socio cultural society.
Our reluctance to address our past present and (god forbid) our future, and our support to the same community who we oppress, makes us hypocrites.
To George Floyd, to our other black brothers and sisters that were killed before him, and to the communities protesting this oppression, we need to pay more than a tweet or an Instagram story and take up the fight against systemic casteism, classism, and racism here. We should work towards our common goals to decolonize this racist background
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