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Friday, June 05, 2020

George Floyd & Diversity and Inclusion

George Floyd, 46, died after Derek Chauvin, a policeman, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes on May 25, Policeman was insane, His wife divorced him for that. Problem is people labelled them as black and white; one thing led to the other, bringing about a great unrest first in US, which has now spread across the world. 

There is this forward that is going around. 


The death by itself had created unrest, which intensified by the misinterpretation of the tweet by Trump:

I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right.....

....These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!

'I can't breaths' became a rallying cry among protesters. There are some silent spectators benefiting out of it, and those fighting are losing, time, energy and money.  Why do people do this, even during these times of social distancing? Don't people understand that people coming out in such large number, will increase the spread of the Pandamic?  Irrespective Floyd's case was taking seriously, and this spread across the globe. 

Who does America belong to? I just read a post by a "White American" friend about Black Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans and the real Americans...the whites. But is it? What happened to the Red Indians, the real true blood Americans? The original owners of the land? The Cherokees, the Apaches, the Iroquois and the rest are never heard of these days. Whites, Blacks, Yellows, Browns, Coloreds all fight it out for supremacy but where are the REDS? Shoved to some remote corners, fed with intoxicants and drugs, their culture almost dead. Yet those lovely names persist Mississippi, Winnipeg, Dakota, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri reminding us of the days of yore, when the mighty REDS, the chieftains , ruled the place with their tepees and totem poles and tomohawks. Where are they now? Aren't they the true Americans? The Native Americans? And here we have the Blacks and Whites and Racism. Is'nt the situation similar in many countries like Australian Aborigines, The New Zealand Maories, Tibetans in China. 

Seems the History is lost somewhere, in the race. Lessons of Life : We build walls to protect a house we call home. We build walls between people and us to protect our vulnerabilities. We build walls behind which we hide from ourselves. So afraid are we of ourselves. Caged behind so many walls, do we know who we are anymore? - Shekhar Kapur.

A flash back into few years before - on 17th January 2016, Rohith Vemula hanged himself to death in Hyderabad. But this soon faded away. Reason? The focus was not on the issue, politicking was the priority.  There was no sympathy towards the oppressed. We just focus on the current case, and don't look at the trend. 

The lack of diversity, in the Indian news room is an old problem. Most of the time, the perpetrator of the crime belongs to the same caste of the reporter or the anchor. The media needs to be fair and free, uninfluenced by corporate and government interest. 

People all over are now talking about Racial tolerance and diversity & Inclusion; which is not just about demographics and events, it's about diversity of thoughts, ideas and experience. We need to work towards eliminating bias, be a part of key events, specific to the region and bring about a positive change in behaviour and culture. When we say positive change, it should be one of tolerance, equality and  justice.

“Accepting people as they are, for what they are; adding variety of thoughts and deeds with tolerance and justice. “ is what diversity and inclusion mean to me.  And this is how we end the month:



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