Ambedkar King Study Circle (AKSC) Strongly Condemns the Killing of George Floyd and Appreciates the Courage of the People who demand Justice on the streets
On Monday, May 25,2020 Minneapolis police officers arrested Mr. George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man(father of two daughters). After the arrest, a white police officer Mr. Derek Chauvin dug his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds and killed him on the spot where he was arrested though repeatedly asking he couldn’t breathe. The people who were watching asked the officer not to kill Mr. Floyd. While we strongly condemn this inhuman and brutal act, we also see this murder as a manifestation of institutional racism rather than the isolated act of Mr. Chauvin.
Following the murder of Mr. George Floyd, protests erupted across the cities in the United States. People, the Blacks, the Whites, the Asians, the Hispanics and others, hit the streets and demanded justice for Mr. Floyd. No Justice-No Peace is their predominant slogan. America’s one of the leading magazines, The Nation, has a valid critique about the Whites in these protests. It commented, “they[the white people] will join in calls to bring individual racists to account, … But when it comes time to deal with institutional purveyors of racism, as opposed to individual bad actors, the outrage and support of the white community is not there.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr writes that White America was ready to demand that the Blacks should be spared the lash of brutality and coarse degradation, but it had never been truly committed to helping him out of poverty, exploitation or all forms of discrimination.
If the Black families had received ‘Forty acres and a mule’ according to Special Field Orders No. 15, in 1865, racism would have been obliterated a long ago and the United States would have been a post-racial society now. Those stand with African Americans should demand such radical reconstruction by demanding an end to all exploitation and all forms of discrimination. There is no racial justice without economic justice. The emotions of the non-Blacks that are momentarily inflamed by police brutality should not melt away.
Most of the Indian non-profit organizations operating in the United States who have positions of neutrality and are silent on caste draconian brutalities, exploitation and institutionalized oppression in India and never allow discussion on caste in their respective organizations issued statements on Mr. Floyd’s killing. This is less an attempt to show solidarity as much as it is an attempt to pretend that the struggles of privileged-caste Indians are the same as those of Black people. This is mere hypocrisy. These Brahminical (read casteist) organizations promote and defend caste subtly and overtly through their various cultural programs that promote caste pride. Meanwhile, AKSC appreciates a few Indian organizations making meaningful interventions in caste oppression and discrimination, who also demand justice for Mr. Floyd.
Ambedkar King Study Circle(AKSC) is named after Dr. King and Dr. B.R Ambedkar, an Indian revolutionary who fought for the emancipation of the most oppressed castes in India. Dr. B.R Ambedkar is the counterpart of Dr.King. The horrific and often fatal brutalities faced by the Dalits, the most oppressed caste in India at the hands of the privileged-caste Brahminical Indian state, parallels the fatal violence faced by the Black people in the United States. AKSC is resolute in standing solidarity with Black Americans in this tough time of their struggle.
June 02, 2020
San Jose, California