Here is some perspective from Trevor Noah on what is going
on currently – it is a great perspective. I’ve been thinking about it myself,
in the backdrop of the conversation here a few days ago; and in light of Amy
Cooper incident. I wonder what would have happened to the Christian Cooper had
the cops turned out and for some reason he had not recorded what exactly
happened in [see the URL is in the footnote]. Would
Christian Cooper automatically be a suspect, taken down, detained and
hand-cuffed ? I don’t think any of us will have perfect answer for that, but I
think it is more than likely that would happened.
Now, at work, we were asked, if we were all safe due to the
protests and rioting. I made a joke that this is nothing, since we are used to
more severe forms while growing up in India. But giving it a serious thought,
this is where I used to see as black and white (or right or wrong); now,
I find myself hard pressed to get out of shades of grey ! Most revolutions are
preceded by (violent) actions against institutionalized oppression. When I
start judging rioting, I'm defaulting to my position of privilege, to make that
judgement, because it threatens my and my family's safety, and hence rioting is
wrong. Those guys safety is threatened every day. I'm beginning to
understand when very famous African Americans talk about visceral fear they
feel when they are stopped by cops - Serena Williams (proxy), Michael Bennett,
James Blake, so on. The impotent anger when they are stopped, frisked,
handcuffed in public at a whim of someone’s mere doubt. What happens to an
African American on the street, is something I cannot grasp, hence I think, I
don't have the right to judge from my perch [The two interactions I have had
with Cops in the US, have both been pleasant, btw]
Here is the link to Trevor Noah’s video, that provides a
further context/clarity to my thinking about rioting and looting; and breaking
of social contract.
