International Human Rights And The Lives Of Black People: A Call To Action
In the realm of human rights, and the human rights protections of human beings, you would think that in this time in history — of the history in law and policies governing the United States particularly — there would be human rights that would exist to solely protect Black people in North America.
When it comes to police brutality, police violence, and anti-blackness in the United States, the harms done unto we Black folks is more than enough for anyone to consider that we are in grave danger and have been so for a long time. We have no laws specifically protecting us, even when we are constantly the victims of police and vigilante violence in this so-called democracy. Who is going to protect us and what will protect us in regards to laws and policies?
This opportunity, what I am breaking down here, could have easily come after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, MN — a city I just left not long ago to return to my home state of Illinois. There was more than enough in that case for an international human rights council to come together and put the United States on notice regarding how it treats Black women and Black men.
Let alone Breonna Taylor’s case, international human rights is a just cause for governments who claim to be about peace to take actions towards really making sure that groups of people who have been victimized and violated by state governments and police officers nationally, globally, and locally. If not then those words exist on paper and in principle with no real meaning or power to them. International human rights is the answer!
Just as police unions protect police officers when they are in the wrong or when files are charged against them, what about unarmed Black people? Where are the units, the councils, the boards who will protect us? Who is willing to stand up to the racist police and governmental systems that create conditions where Black (and Brown and Red) people are consistently subject to violence?
We are living in unsafe communities and neighborhoods guarded by the very same people who wind up facing charges because they took one of our lives. That alone in itself is a recipe for disaster. Jayland Walker was shot 60 times by seven police officers in Akron, OH. He was one person. He was unarmed. He was not at all a threat to the police officers who chased him and gunned him down. Where was the protection for Jayland?
It is obvious no court here in the United States is going to ever go as far as citing the police officers who are found guilty of killing a Black person with human rights violations. We have yet to see that happen here and I do not see it happening. But why not? Do not Black people deserve the rights of protection from violent people who take our lives in the most obvious, aggressive, and awful ways?
Do not we deserve an international voice or body of people to say the United States runs a monopoly when it comes to taking the lives of Black people? If we cannot find protections here then who will create a real policy that takes up law enforcement and state governments when they fail to find one of their own guilty for taking our lives?
The Black Lives Matter movement has shown the world we are tired of what is happening to us in our communities. Black Lives Matter chapters all over the United States has given a voice to those of us who were once voiceless. It has stood up for all of the families who have and are continuing to lose their daughters, brothers, sisters, cousins, etc.
If only the Black Lives Matter movement had a governing body with lawyers at their beckoning for every time one of us loses our lives we Black people here in this country would be a lot better off.
Much respect to Ben Crump but he is only one person. We need multiple people with a heavy goal of stopping these human rights violations for the masses. We do not need more studies or meetings or talks, the proof is right in front of our faces when we witness someone like George Floyd lose their lives. The world has seen these travesties play out again and again. We need the world to defend us.
If the world can love Black music, dance, food, art, and culture, then why can’t it come up with ways that protects and saves the lives of us Black people. There is not mistake that our music, dance, food, art, and culture has impacted and empowered lives across the globe. We have contributed to economies in the most major ways. We have been genius’s helping to solve some of this country’s biggest challenges.
Black basketball players, soccer players, tennis players, golfers, gymnasts, and football players have revolutionized sports. We have meant so much to what it means to be a citizen of the United States and global citizens — especially when you look at film, television, and hip-hop music and culture. Don’t you think we deserve international human rights protections?
The world if failing us. The people who are in power all over the globe is failing us. When T’Chaka in the movie Black Panther stood as a Black man from Africa to speak to the United Nations, imagine had that been real life and he was speaking for the international protections of Black people in North America. Imagine what his speech would have been like.
Imagine the facts and figures he would have been able to share regarding the deaths of us at the hands of the police, how many of us are in jail and prison the United States and beyond, and how many of us are on probation still shackled to the court system in this country. We are losing our lives too often in this country and marches and protests haven’t stopped this from happening.
The vigils you see on television or on a livestream are not stopping the deaths of Black people at the hands of the people. We need a true human rights court that puts the violators in front of a world community so they can face their crimes.
Why should we let it be known to young Black people it is okay for police officers and vigilantes to murder Black people? Why should they have to live seeing so many injustices taking place in their own communities? Why should they grow up knowing their lives can be taken away and not much will be one about it? Don’t we owe it to the children?
Can someone show us that Black Lives do matter and create an international law or policy that protects the lives of Black people living in North America? Please? Our very lives depend on it.
