The Character of America

Progress is often times measured by the amount and type of change we see in the world today, but legislative change can only happen through the hearts and willingness of government. Our elected officials must be diverse culturally and progressive intellects in order to have proper unbiased discernment when human rights and freedoms are threatened. As with many nations, its primary goal is to have the interest of their nation as priority. However, too often people who are Black are left out of the equation, and national interest and legislation become change for other groups of people. The problems that Black communities have endured for hundreds of years are sent through the prism of government only to be refracted into primarily serving and benefiting the interest of others. Our labor, anger, blood, lives, trauma, sweat, time and tears are still being used as the catalyst for change for others. This captures exactly who our government is working for and against.

In the midst of the Black Lives Matter human rights movement and the coronavirus pandemic, according to data acquired from the years 2019 to 2020 by CNN, attacks targeting Black people rose to 2,871 from 1,972, and the number targeting Asians jumped to 279 from 161. The number of anti-Jewish attacks dropped from 963 in 2019 to 683 in 2020. Based on the numbers, it took an increase of 118 Asian hate-crime attacks for Congress to immediately pass legislation while the number of hate crimes against Blacks was 12.25 times greater pre-pandemic in 2019. Black people are and have been the most often victimized by hate crimes. The question the American people and government need to ask themselves is, why did it take hundreds of years, several human rights movements, blood shed and millions of lives lost to pass an anti-hate crime law? If we take a look historically at the hate-crime data from the Civil Rights Movement, Jim Crow and slavery, the data comparison related to hate-crimes juxtaposed to 2019 - 2020, inarguably the “decision making process” by government to enact legislation has been and is still grossly biased, discriminatory and fueled by hatred against people who are Black.

Excerpt from COVID-19 Hate Crime Act.

Although, the COVID–19 Hate Crimes Act was introduced to the Senate March 23, 2020 and signed into law May 20, 2021 with the encouragement of Asian lawmakers after a spike in attacks on Asians, the bill did not include any words or language related to hate crimes specifically against the most victimized group of people, Blacks or “African-Americans”, to be treated as a federal crime for prosecution. In fact, this bill mentions Asian and Pacific Islander 8 times and those with disabilities 5 times. Anti-lynching was also not included in this bill. The Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act was introduced by Rep. Bobby L. Rush, January 4, 2020. It was strongly supported by Vice President Kamala Harris (then California Senator) and New Jersey Senator Corey Booker, but it has not passed the Senate due to opposition by Senator Rand Paul who prevented the bill from being passed by unanimous consent.

These are but a few of the legislative decisions and inactions that paints the portrait and character of America. The war on people who are Black continues.