You can’t change the world with just words! Want to end racism? Solve inequality first!!

It is difficult not to look at what’s gone on in America this week and not feel sad. Sadness that it has gone on for this long and even while they had a black president and with many of their police chiefs black. Sadness that in a few weeks’ time it will happen again and protests or no protests, a few months after that it will happen again

The value of human life is determined by what the consequences are if you take that life. It really is that simple. That is why countries hold on to nuclear deterrents. If there are no consequences to the repeated taking of black lives in America, by the very people who are paid and employed by the citizens they continue to kill, then it will never end. The reason why white people do not have police kneeling on their necks in public or punched in the face is because of the consequences, not because some in the police would not want to.

So, how can you up the value of black lives in America and create consequences?

The answer lies in finances. Affluence.

Set up a $trillion Black fund and hire the smartest investors, start new industries, businesses, educate, train and employ black people in America. Drag them out of poverty. There must be at least 1000 black millionaires in America (plus a few black billionaires like Oprah Winfrey, Dr Dre and Jay-Z), and if the government want to end the matter of reparations for ever, throw in an additional $trillion: provide fixed pensions for all 40 million or so blacks in America from that fund. Then invest heavily in several key sectors in America: automobile, energy, health etc., so that there is heavy dependence across the country, on the Black Fund. Get lobbyists in, lawyers (recruit indiscriminately: whites, blacks etc.); the next time a black life is taken by police or a white woman calls the cops needlessly on a black person like the dog-walker in NY, come down on them like a ton of bricks with legal and heavy financial consequences. The next black person to be arrested will be treated with dignity and humanity. Nobody is saying people should not be arrested if and when they break the law, but to dehumanise them by laying them on the tarmac, kneeling on their neck or tying them while riding a horse (last year in America) with the black man walking behind the horse, should meet with severe consequences: instant dismissal and long term inability to secure another job (financial ruin) and other significant measures are good deterrents

Few would disagree that there’s a good number of white people out there in America who are appalled by what they have seen (George Floyd videos) and there are many police men and women in America who are not out to get black people but simply wish to do a decent job and go home after their shifts. So, this is a matter of making sure the deterrent is in place so that ALL American lives are valued and all citizens are afforded the “employer” status by their public services e.g. police. None of us would march into our employer’s office and place our knee on his/her neck would we?

Blacks in America continue to dream: new government, perhaps a messiah. Slavery is not something that only happened to blacks (even if the most recent mass enslavement did involve blacks). Every race has been enslaved at one point or the other in history. Others chose to move on and stop dwelling on it (I can’t recall a movie depicting barbary slaves for instance). Barbary slaves were whites enslaved by blacks. The Moors enslaved many whites. Romans were slaves, Greeks were slaves. There were galley slaves of all colour. And the seemingly acceptable term: “people of colour” never ceases to baffle me: when did white cease to be a colour? We are all people of colour: white, black, brown etc. All colours. And the whole classification of who is black: if it is visual, then surely half of Spain and Italy is black? (most of those folks are darker than Megan Markle!)

Create the $multi-trillion Black Fund in America, get blacks out of poverty with it through enterprise. Invest and create the dependency across sectors in America on that fund and you have your deterrent. Use that financial muscle to ensure swift consequences and you will end the brutality and inequality. People won’t necessarily have to love black people, but they will think twice before kneeling on their necks in public

The world can focus on America all we want (perhaps because they say (rather bizarrely) they are the land of the free and their leader is the head of the supposed free world) but where on planet earth are black people having a good time? Not even in Africa, thanks to centuries of being grabbed and bundled off as slaves, followed by decades under colonial rule, followed by the current and ongoing decades of manipulation and abuse. If corrupt leaders in Africa are denied the ability to stash $billions away in bank accounts in supposedly developed countries, perhaps they can be forced to invest those funds locally and Africa can industrialise (mechanise agriculture etc) and eliminate poverty and end the need for so many Africans suffering abuse and hardship in their sometimes fatal attempts to get to what they deem as developed countries. In all instances of black suffering (be it a George Floyd with a white knee on his neck or kids drowning in boats trying to cross the sea) you will find poverty, desperation and hopelessness (even if some try to depict it as greed or economic migration; not sure how many would be so keen to go and get their necks knelt on…). End the equality, drag black people out of poverty and you drive the value of their lives up (empty words won’t do it) and there will be hesitation before anyone feels willing to snuff their life out!