No equality for blacks in US, despite famed constitution’s words

The recent abhorrent shooting  of Jacob Blake  by the notoriously racist American police has once again proved the US  is no place for black women and men. George Floyd, killed at the hands of police in May,  is yet to find eternal peace. #BlackLivesMatter is calling for an end to racism across the world, but still the US  white supremacists disguised as police are far from being restrained.

Revisiting the history pages will help us understand how the US was founded on racial injustice. In 1776 Thomas Jefferson, backed by 13 American states, led the charge and read out the declaration of independence. The declaration was a sweet melody of human rights.

Part of it read, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In the history of mankind there will never be sweeter words to equality than these that were used to reclaim  America’s natural independence from Great Britain. The document Jefferson read to the Second Continental Conference is well archived and regarded as sacred. Jefferson himself is regarded as the father of the US constitution, but there is more to it.

The declaration of independence exposes the deceit that forms the basis of the US constitution. It has always been about white people, and never about black people. It immediately emerged that the inalienable rights contained in the declaration of independence and seconded by the 13 states were only applicable to white people and distant to the black slaves that either pledged solidarity or were coerced into solidarity with the declaration.

This was the beginning of racial equality fraud in the US. Jefferson himself kept slaves and fathered children with some of them. Involuntary servitude continued unhindered, lynching remained the order of the day.

This only changed 90 years later with one brave man, Abraham Lincoln. The first freedom message to the black slave people was pronounced. The preliminary emancipation proclamation was put forward in 1863, but to little effect. To briefly close the history lesson, the dominant division that led to the American Civil War of the 18th century was the issue of slaves after the declaration of independence. It shouldn’t have been an issue but it was — this is America after all we are talking about.

The union and the land has always spoken to the white and never to the black. Pan-Africanist thinkers like Dr WEB Dubois and Sylvester Williams should not be forgiven for entertaining the idea that all blacks of African descent should track back to Africa, their home. Proponents of the proposition argued that America would never be home for those of African origin, but a consequential result of the unpleasant and horrifying circumstance of slave trade.

The American democracy is a young democracy, but it  is aided by great efforts of pompousness and self-awarded superiority. As recently as the 1960s Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X  and their like were being brutalised for demanding racial equality in the US.

The fight for racial justice is an agonising record of history that should not be understated. Neither Martin Luther King Jr nor Malcolm X are alive today, but the fight for racial justice is far from over. It has not lost either intensity or momentum. The fight has also found new heroes.

The fact that at the centre of the fight today are sports people, not politicians, speaks volumes on the American political system. It is a fundamentally flawed, rigid, untransformed and unresponsive system.

How does one justify the existence of the Electoral College system in the 21st century? This is an institution found with the sole purpose to preserve white supremacy and suffocate the democratic will of black people. At the centre of the American political system is white supremacy, not human liberty.

US President Donald Trump, a terrible human being, has never minced his words when it comes to black people. He called protesting American sports people “bitches”, threatened to call the army on #BlackLivesMatter protesters and recently failed to categorically condemn white supremacism in the El Paso shooting. It is not a surprise that under his term racial injustice has blown out of proportion. There is currently no political will to transform race relations in the US, and there has never been.

The US system as it is will make it impossible to ensure racial justice. This is a system that appreciates that all men are created equal but ensures they live unequally. This is a system intentionally made to alienate the rights of the minority black, protect white privilege and preserve white supremacy.

Tinashe Mutema is an economist and political analyst.