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CNWEEKLYNEWS.COM
THURSDAY JUNE 4, 2020
THE WAY FORWARD That some people are more outraged by the sporadic rioting and looting than the systematic killing of unarmed Black men and women across the nation is telling. Remember former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was aggressively condemned for peacefully kneeling during the National anthem at NFL games, in protest against police brutality. It’s ironic that the now-infamous image associated with George Floyd’s death is a cop kneeling on his neck.
So yes, it is not unexpected that resentment to this continuous humiliation is boiling over. What we see happening on the streets, though ignited by the murder of Floyd, is a fire burning from 400 years of oppression—overt and subtle, systemic and systematic, personal and collective. It’s unfortunate that Black people, on whose backs this country was built, have continued to suffer persistent injustices since landing in America in the 17th century. History shows that Black people are largely responsible for building American enterprise—as enslaved Africans, they picked cotton, built railroads, historic universities, and even the White House. As free Blacks, their cheap and at times unpaid labor (from prisons) continued to weave the fabric of the American economy and building wealth for the ruling class—all while not being allowed to directly benefit from that wealth. The raging protests we see nationally and around the continues on A6 – The Way Forward