I have been watching the protest and riots that are unfolding after the death of George Floyd in recent days. It has left me with a broken heart and several sleepless nights.
The death of George Floyd, after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck as bystanders shouted to stop, has touched off a familiar-feeling storm of activism, nightly chaos, and discussion of race in America. Several of my mentorship students asked me about my thoughts. It isn't easy to offer my take as I am trying to grasp what is happening in our cities. But I have provided the following to my students as we have discussed the Death of George Floyd.
This has sparked plenty of discussion about race and justice in America, and as we fight Covid-19, one epidemic we can't seem to overcome is white fear of black men in public spaces - the injustice that ensues. How can we overcome this legal framework that gives police effective license "to shoot, pummel, or falsely arrest ill-fated citizens," and over-criminalization of minor offenses leaves it to the police to "be nice." What we witnessed in American cities in recent days is what we typically see in the streets of the Middle East. If Minneapolis wherein a developing country with a history of governance issues, how would Western media report on what's happening in the US right now? It's a useful metaphor in checking Americans' perspective biases. In recent years, the international community has sounded the alarm on the deteriorating political and human rights situation in America under the presidency of Donald Trump. As the country marks 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, we find ourselves in a downward spiral of ethnic violence. America has been rocked by several viral videos depicting extrajudicial executions of black ethnic minorities by state security forces. President Trump took to Twitter, calling black protesters 'thugs' and threatening to send in military force. 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts,' he declared. Ethnic violence has plagued the country for generations, and decades ago, it captured the attention of the world. Still, recently the news coverage and concerns are waning as there seems to be no end in sight to the oppression. One student told me that this is "Normal in America." I told him what Barack Obama told us. "This shouldn't be normal in 2020 America. It can't be normal. If we want our children to grow up in a nation that lives up to its highest ideals, we can and must be better. I am not angry. I am heartbroken these days. But it falls on us, regardless of our race, to work together to create a new normal in which the legacy of injustice and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our hearts. Yesterday I visited my favorite BBQ joint (Showcase BBQ) in Homewood. A predominately black neighborhood of Pittsburgh. I was the only none black there. The owner told me. "While everyone is facing the battle against COVID-19, black people in America are still facing the battle against racism and coronavirus." He told me: "Dr. King, never burned one building... never robbed one store... never destroyed one town... But he Changed the World. And that's what I'm telling my daughters... We must listen to Dr. King. We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools..."
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Being a student of history teaches us astounding lessons; global crises almost always followed by great inventions.
Over two centuries ago, in April of 1815, the eruption of Mount Tambora, a volcano in Indonesia, was one of the greatest in human history. It caused the spread of a massive plume of dust around the world. It caused the blockage of the sun and naturally decreasing global temperatures. In America, a dry fog tinted the sun, and there was summer snowfall in New York and Boston. Protests and looting broke out in many European countries as harvests failed. Food prices soared, and hundreds of thousands of people died from famine and disease. In China, the cold weather destroyed trees and crops. Around the world, horses starved or were butchered, as the high price of oats drove many to chose whether to feed their animals or themselves. Although the majority of the world was traumatized with this crisis, Karl von Drais, a German inventor, to devise the personal-transport machine to replace the horse: a two-wheeled wooden contraption which he called the Laufmaschine (literally means: running machine). Karl was sitting on a saddle when propelled it by planting his feet on the ground and pushing every few meters while steering using a tiller. It was an exhibition ride, in which he traveled 60 kilometers in almost five hours, showed the world it was as fast as a trotting horse, and could be powered by the rider without much work. The complicated part, of course, was keeping the balance while gliding along, which took some practice, and as we had all learned when we were little. Karl's invention didn't replace the horse, of course: the weather returned to normal, leading to a plentiful harvest in 1817. But, fans continued to improve on Karl's original design. The crucial addition of pedals happened in France in the 1860s. Other refinements included better breaks, a steel frame, metal wheels, and a chain to drive them. By the late 1880s, these parts had been combined into a recognizable design: the bicycle. An invention inspired by a challenge and exciting times of a long-forgotten global crisis, therefore, ended up spreading around the globe and becoming part of our everyday lives. Now, as we are dealing with COVID-19 crisis, what innovations might the coronavirus outbreak of 2020 reveal? The pandemic will undoubtedly inspire new approaches to online learning or package delivery by drones and undoubtedly some less obvious ideas. Who would have imagined, after all, that a volcano would give birth to what we call "the bicycle"? |
AuthorRoozbeh, born in Tehran - Iran (March 1984) Archives
April 2024
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