[June 2020]
We often proclaim that we are fortunate enough to be living in a free world. Free of the vices of colonialism, slavery, racism and discrimination. We pride ourselves in having established a new egalitarian world order that is based upon the tenets of equality and justice. We preach the ideals of righteousness and fairness, that is, the golden rule of treating others as you would expect to be treated yourself. We take comfort in the innocent belief that all persons, regardless of their secondary identifiers such as colour, caste, religion, race, gender and sex, are treated alike.
The Constitution of India, considered by many to be a holy document, prohibits discrimination on the above-mentioned grounds and guarantees the right to equality to all persons, by way of Article(s) 14 and 15. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was aimed at putting an end to the racial discrimination faced by persons of colour. Today, historical movements against discrimination, such as the anti-Apartheid and the Civil Rights movements, are commemorated as the harbingers of equality. Discrimination, apparently, has become an alien concept to us, one which died a slow death a long time ago. It is treated as nothing but another chapter in the history books.
On May 25 of this year, however, the world was jolted awake from this fantasy with the homicide of George Floyd in Minneapolis, United States. Floyd, an African-American, was murdered by police officers in an apparent case of racism and police brutality. Derek Chauvin, a white officer, knelt on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds while the latter kept pleading that he was unable to breathe. Recordings of the incident show by-standers trying to intervene and persuade the officers to get off him as Floyd became increasingly unresponsive. The murder sparked outrage on an unprecedented scale as anger over racial discrimination and the use of excessive force by police officers bubbled over the breaking point. The incident also resuscitated the Black Lives Matter movement, a campaign against incidents of police brutality against African-Americans.
