IT is disgusting how the fact that people can’t choose their own skin colour is used against them as witnessed in the recent police brutality in America. What has been unfolding in the streets of America for the past three days is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in the democracy that is the US.

There is no satisfactory answer for prejudice against African-Americans by their fellow citizens. In the countless incidents that have occurred in the past 50 years since Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s famous march for civil rights, the tale is one of unending mistreatment.

No matter what those speaking up for the police say, it’s always the police firing into a crowd which is the beginning of the violence unleashed by an enraged crowd. It is sad but true that African-American people can’t go out without their families worrying themselves sick for them. One’s ethnicity, race, colour and religion should not determine one’s fate.

It is time the policemen in America, especially those who are Caucasians, were trained to be more receptive to sensitivities of African-Americans and accorded them the same respect as they do to the descendents of those who emigrated, willingly, on the Mayflower.

Fizah Ahmad

Georgia, USA

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2020