The Land of Diversity? Or, the Islands of Diversity?
Ferguson, Baltimore, Staten Island, Texas, Trayvon Martin…
Racism is not only about whites hating blacks. Although American police’s out-of-control brutality often violates blacks. But racist oppression is happening against new immigrants: Latinos, Muslims, Sikhs, Chinese, Arabs, Africans, and all other ethnic groups and colors.
One strong common denominator is class. Barack Obama and his family would not be brutalized by police. Beyoncé or Kanye West would not be touched. J. Lo and Eva Longoria would be spared. But a poor, powerless man, woman or child — from any minority race or color is target of violence.
And ironically, many of these acts or hate or bigotry come from within the minority community.
This happened recently, many years after 9/11. The attacker said, “I don’t like those people.”
Just the other day, an Hispanic man beat up an 82-year-old Sikh grandfather, because the man said, “I don’t like those people.” An Hispanic woman pushed to death Sunando Sen, a Bengali Hindu immigrant, on the NYC subway track because she said, “I hate those people.”
Even after fourteen years of 9/11, America has not grown up.
The people in power do not have any public education program to teach diversity, peace and tolerance. They do not care about the pervasive climate of mistrust, hate and racism. They will keep using stop-gap measures, shoot and kill some, put some in private prisons, and deport some more. Obama has deported millions already.
America is not the land of diversity. It is an archipelago of diversity. Diverse people live on diverse islands, and there is no cross-cultural understanding.
This is not an abstract observation. I have seen it for many years here in America, especially since I worked as a grassroots community organizer at an immigrant advocacy group.
Sincerely,
Partha
Brooklyn, New York
Sunando Sen, a Bengali Hindu immigrant from India was pushed on to the subway track to death by an Hispanic woman. She yelled, “I hate those people.”