Alex Coutris caught movement out of the corner of his eye and went to turn toward the cashiers, when he was thrown into the air by a rifle fire. The copper shrapnel tore through the flesh of his face and lodged in his neck. He collapsed and fell to his side, his cheek and shoulders glistening with blood. A woman's scream echoed in his ears and he thought, I escaped the Japanese and I'll die like this for 300 pesos. He spat something pink and thick on the floor.
In August 1955 a 14-year-old boy from Chicago took a trip to the Mississippi Delta to visit some relatives.
A week later Emmett Till would lose his life after a savage lynching by a group of whites.
His crime;
He had whistled admiringly at a white girl.
Τον Ιούλιο του 2014 ο Eric Garner δολοφονείται από αστυνομικούς κατά τη διάρκεια της σύλληψής του στους δρόμους της Νέας Υόρκης. Ο θάνατός του προήλθε από ασφυξία καθώς οι αστυνομικοί τον είχαν ακινητοποιήσει στο πεζοδρόμιο. Οι τελευταίες του λέξεις είναι I can’t breathe.
His crime;
Πουλούσε χύμα τσιγάρα.
Τα τελευταία λόγια του Garner έγιναν σύνθημα στα χείλη εκατομμυρίων ανθρώπων σε όλο τον κόσμο. Γενικευμένες ταραχές ξέσπασαν σε πολλές πόλεις των ΗΠΑ. Οι αστέρες του ΝΒΑ εμφανίστηκαν στην προθέρμανση των αγώνων με τις τελευταίες λέξεις του Garner γραμμένες στα μπλουζάκια τους.
I can'tt breathe.
In May 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, George Floyd, a black American, will die in the hands of the police after a check.
His crime;
A counterfeit note.
Στις τελευταίες του στιγμές ζητούσε τη μάνα του.
A few months after the lynching of Emmett Till, in Montgomery, Alabama, a dressmaker, Rosa Parks would be arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man.
Parks' arrest will lead to a general boycott of the city's mass media by black Americans that will last for over a year.
In November 1956 racial segregation in the MMM would be ruled unconstitutional.
Today, Saturday, February 4, as you read this text marks the 110th anniversary of the birth of Rosa Parks.
THE Burning city it's a book that I personally would probably never buy on my own. Nothing about it would intrigue me, not the cover of the Greek edition, not the case described on the back cover, not even the name of the writer George Pelecanos whom I vaguely remembered for his participation in the script of some episodes of my very good and favorite series The Wire. Fortunately, however, I have very good friends who monitor the offers in online bookstores and keep me informed.
And the reason I wouldn't be intrigued is because as with the Holocaust, the story being told is nothing new. But also as with the Holocaust, every new story, whether based on real events or inspired by an author, always has something to offer.
And of course it always hides a large percentage of truth.
So our story begins in the spring of 1959 in Washington where we watch our heroes take their positions. Pelecanos sets up the beginning of the story as if he were setting up the pieces on a chessboard and timidly beginning to play a game. The similarity with the chessboard is that here too we are dealing with mainly black and white. The difference is that many times things in life are not necessarily black or white.
The main character of the book is Derek Strange, a 12-year-old black boy who dreams of becoming a police officer. Around Derek and his family, a web of different stories is woven, neighbors, friends, relatives, cops, which makes a microcosm where everything has its meaning. The color of your skin, the car you drive, the job you do, the music you listen to. All of this puts you in boxes. The problem with the boxes is that they often overlap each other. And there are a million ways to get trapped in a box, inside another box, inside another box. And in the end, don't know where the exit is.
And where is yourself? Your true self. Assuming there is only one.
After the pieces are set we are transported to the spring of 1968.
Derek, now 21 years old, is a police recruit. But he feels that he is stepping on two boats. He wears the uniform of his tribe's enemy. The police and justice were never on the side of the black brothers.
In June 1966 Rubin “Hurricane” Carter and John Artis were arrested and charged with a triple homicide that had taken place earlier that night. Although there was no conclusive evidence of their guilt, the two men were sentenced to life imprisonment. All twelve jurors in the case were white.
Carter's case attracted a lot of publicity. Bob Dylan wrote his famous song Hurricane, mass demonstrations took place. In 1999, a movie based on his life was also made, starring Denzel Washington.
Carter was released from prison in 1985.
He died in 2014.
Artis was released from prison in 1981.
He went back to prison for a drug case.
He died in November 2021.
But the 60s were also marked by something else, beyond the discrimination against black Americans.
Since the Vietnam War.
In 1960, the then 18-year-old Muhammad Ali wins the gold medal at the Rome Olympics. Then he is still called Cassius Clay, a name he will give up in 1964.
In 1966 he will refuse to serve in the army and be sent to Vietnam.
Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?
He was sentenced to prison, stripped of his titles, and did not fight again for over four years.
Ali became a symbol of the struggle for black rights and human rights.
Another champion of black rights, activist and Islamic cleric Malcolm X, would be assassinated in February 1965 in New York by members of Nations of Islam. His radicalism put him at rift with many of his supporters and at odds with the policy of non-violence expressed by the other great political activist of the time, Martin Luther King.
October 16, 1968.
Mexico City.
19th Modern Olympic Games.
200 meters award ceremony.
Olympic gold medalist and world record holder with a time of 19″.83 Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos, both members of the United States track and field team, raise their fists, clad in black leather gloves, while the anthem of the United States is played in their honor. The two runners received their medals barefoot, wearing black socks, thus signifying the poverty of black America. Olympic silver medalist Peter Norman of Australia had earlier suggested they share Smith's pair of gloves after Carlos had forgotten his own. All three runners wore organization stickers Olympic Project For Human Rights. The two American runners, shortly before going to the stadium for the award, asked their fellow athlete if he believes in human rights, wanting to know his opinion about their protest. He answered them in the affirmative by adding I'm on your side... After the award the two American runners were expelled from the United States team, under pressure and threats from the president of the Olympic Committee to exclude the entire track and field team from the games.
They never competed in the Olympics again.
All three athletes returning home were treated badly by the media and society. They faced problems in their careers and in their personal lives, even receiving threats against their lives. The Los Angeles Times accused them of giving a Nazi salute. Smith continued his career playing rugby before becoming an assistant professor of physical education at Oberlin College. He worked as an assistant coach for the United States track and field team for the 1995 World Indoor Championships in Barcelona. In 1999 he was awarded as o Athlete Of The Millennium. He is still involved in the promotion of human rights. Carlos briefly continued his track and field career, followed by a brief rugby career, until a serious knee injury ended his playing career. He worked odd jobs to support his 4 children, and lost his wife, who committed suicide, in 1977. Peter Norman did not compete in the Olympics again, although he continued to run until 1985, when after an Achilles injury tendon got gangrene and almost lost his leg. After this incident he suffered from severe depression and a serious alcoholism problem.
He died on October 3, 2006. At his funeral, the two athletes with whom he shared that historic podium carried the coffin with his body on their shoulders.
Dr. King did not live to see this award, one of the most important moments in 20th century sportsου century.
He was murdered a few months earlier, in April, in Memphis. After his assassination, riots broke out in many major cities, including Washington. With this uprising of black Americans, Pelecanos's book ends.
As the game draws to a close the pieces take their final positions before launching their attack. The lot looks like a boiling cauldron. The hatred on both sides is enormous. White people don't want to give up their privilege. They think black people are only good for playing basketball and singing. Black people on the other hand live oppressed for years in a strange precariousness. Most of them leaving their home do not know if they will return.
On 4th December 2015 Professor Steve Locke was subjected to a police check on his way to work.
The police approached him in the parking lot where he had left his car while going to get a burrito.
According to the police it matched the description of a man who a short time before had attempted a burglary in the area.
Under the title I fit the description Locke describes his experience from that day on his personal blog. At some point, when the police asked him to follow them in the patrol car to go on reconnaissance, he writes that he believed that day he would die.
I wasn't going to let them take me anywhere because if they did, the chance I was going to be accused of something I didn't do rose exponentially.
As long as the policemen had him standing and surrounded in the parking lot, people began to gather. A petite woman in a red coat appeared at the back of the parking lot. Locke writes that he turned his attention to this woman trying to slow his pulse and remain calm, praying inwardly that the woman would not leave.
I noticed a black woman further down the block. She was small and concerned. She was watching what was going on. I focused on her red coat. I slowed my breathing. I looked at her from time to time.
I thought: Don't leave, sister. Please don't leave.
All the rest of the day Locke was upset.
He was thinking that nothing counted for the police, that he told them he was not the man they were looking for, his expensive coat, the ID card hanging around his neck, the one of a kind hat that a friend had knitted for him. Nothing.
Nothing I am, nothing I do, nothing I have means anything because I fit the description.
Reading Pelecanos' book I was transported back to that time.
I saw the fancy American cars whizzing down the streets of Washington, I heard the songs of the time, I saw the parties, I felt the turmoil, the uncertainty in which black Americans lived, I experienced the atmosphere of the ghettos, I actually lived in it for a few days the season.
But the point is that that era is not over.
A few days ago in Memphis a group of five black police officers stopped 29-year-old Tire Nicolls for dangerous driving. They tried to subdue him using pepper spray and a taser. Nicolls escaped from their cordon, was recaptured and severely beaten.
Nicolls died three days later in hospital.
Last week, Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, was expelled from the Committee by the votes of the majority of Republicans, on the grounds that she does not have the impartiality required of a member of parliament, citing the harsh its attitude towards the Israeli governments' settlement policy.
Omar, who is a Muslim from Somalia, and who experienced as a child the civil war raging in her country, expressed the view that in the ongoing conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people, we have a situation where even though both sides use violence as a vehicle to resolve their differences, the main difference is that on the one hand we have a state, and on the other a poor people who have essentially been living in a prison for decades.
But we must speak out truthfully and forcefully about the seeds of this conflict, and about what is happening there today. And the truth is that this is not a conflict between two states. It is not a civil war. It is a conflict where one country, funded and supported by the United States government, continues an illegal military occupation over another group of people. This is not my description of it. This is the description of conservative Israeli leader Ariel Sharon who in 2003 said—quote—'To hold 3.5 million Palestinians under occupation is, in my opinion, a very bad thing for us and for them. It is occupation,' he said 'you might not like this word, but it's really an occupation.'
The oppression of the poorer sections of the population is not new, nor does the US have a monopoly on such practices. But the insecurity felt by blacks in particular, and to a lesser extent by other racial groups, is terrifying. Regardless of education level, appearance, area in which they live, work and move, black Americans are still today, 55 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, treated as second-class citizens, and in many cases as born criminals .
Today, when this text is being written, it is Friday, February 3rd.
On such a day as today in 1959, the plane carrying rock'n'roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Jiles Perry Richardson crashed in Iowa, killing the three musicians and the pilot.
Twelve years later Don McLean would write the song American Pie which shall be referred to at this day as the day the music died (the day the music died). In his song, McLean will describe the death of the American dream that in the 1960s received repeated blows, the biggest of course being the Vietnam War.
This decade was pivotal for human rights, not only in the US, but throughout the world. The truth is that in recent years, with the rise of conservative governments and the rise of the alt-right movement on a global level, we are experiencing an unprecedented darkness. Achievements of past decades are being called into question. Policing intensifies, intolerance and racism dominate public discourse.
Derek Strange's dilemma exists not only among black Americans. First a black man and then a policeman? Race first and duty second; Is there a need for this separation? Is there a need for any separation? Can't we all live together, if not lovingly, at least tolerantly?
After all, we all live under the same sky, we breathe the same air, a woman carried us for nine months in her body and brought us into this world.
Kutris looked up to see the large white man pointing the rifle at his face, he saw the man's finger press one of the two triggers on the inside of the gun and he closed his eyes and saw fire and his mother and absolute emptiness.