Ideastream Week 24
How Long Will This Go On — Rinse, Repeat, Forward, Retreat
“Know your human rights — Be what you come here for”
(The lyrics in the sub-title are from Sting’s iconic song History Will Teach Us Nothing. I’ve provided links to that and South African protest songs at the end of this story.)
We must never let up
I’m on my history soapbox again.
We’re all familiar with the civil rights movement in the States, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream ….” speech in the 1963 March on Washington.
Despite that dream, African Americans are still marginalized and subject to rampant racism.
It’s not my place to discuss another country’s history of discrimination but I won’t be silent on the history of my adopted country where racism was institutionalized and given a name — Apartheid.
We celebrate Youth Day tomorrow, the 44th anniversary of that traumatic yet significant day on 16 June 1976 when Black schoolchildren rose in protest. The image of Hector Pieterson’s lifeless body being carried through the streets of Soweto shocked the world.
Much as the image of George Floyd dying under a policeman’s knee shocked us two weeks ago.
