Will you heed the call?
Image: David Turnley/CORBIS
Muhammad Ali and Nelson Mandela meeting in 1980.
Video: Youtube/Mushtaq Naviwala
Ali in Iraq in 1990.
In November 1990, during the onset of the first Gulf War, Muhammad Ali flew out to Iraq to negotiate the release of 15 US hostages from Saddam Hussein. Saddam said via an interpreter: ‘I cannot let [Haji] Muhammad Ali leave empty-handed.’ Loved all over the world.
Ali. Mandela. These people are eulogised by society for their fight for justice. Yet the reasons behind their fight and modern day legacy from it is glossed over in today’s ‘post-racial’ society. Racism is over. They got Obama, right? Mandela was freed. What about that black on black violence, eh? Savages. Redlining? The systematic denial of various services by government and business through the selective raising of prices in black neighbourhoods? The prison-industrial complex and mass-incarceration of black Americans for minor crimes? I heard that 1 in 4 black American men are in jail. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. If only they complied with police officers, everything would be fine. The excuses for why people do not pay attention to racial injustices are unlimited.
In the West, every week a video surfaces of a person (usually black) being mistreated and killed by the authorities sworn in to protect them. Every week a case long-forgotten about by today’s society resurfaces due to new evidence that highlights the corruption that led to the acquittal of the perpetrators of violence in the initial case. The woman who claimed that Emmett Till whistled at her had lied. Nobody has spent a day in jail for the brutal torture and murder of that 14-year-old boy. Till's death sparked the civil rights movement.
Look, I’m just as tired as you are when it comes to hearing about racism. Yet imagine experiencing it, on a daily basis. Imagine being the family of Amadou Diallo who was shot at 41 times, whilst trying to prove his innocence. The documented cases of injustice are endless, let alone the unrecorded majority. Society needs to do better at holding people and authorities to account for their behaviour. Call out injustice and discrimination when you see it. Call out that flippant comment on Whatsapp. Correct that ignorant family member, colleague or friend. The legacy of the likes of Mandela and Ali isn’t to praise them. It is a call to action to do better and ensure that those around you do better at creating a more just society.
““You lose nothing when fighting for a cause ... In my mind the losers are those who don’t have a cause they care about.””