Ep.26 “I Can’t Breathe” - George Floyd & Structural Racism in America with Hakeem Muhammad
For over 10 minutes, George Floyd was slowly asphyxiated to death by a smirking police officer, as helpless onlookers pleaded for humanity. What seemed more chilling was not the sadist applying his knee upon Mr Floyd’s neck, but his partner holding back the crowd, like a warden at the door of a camp. If there was ever a scene that acted as a metaphor for something bigger, it was the pitiful murder of a man, begging for mercy as his humanity was taken away from him and his life ebbed away. Floyd was arrested because a shop-keeper alleged he used a counterfeit $20 bill.
But a metaphor for what? Certainly, the brutality of the lynching illuminated the worst nightmares of many African Americans that have for years complained about the structural and institutional racism that undergirds American life. Generations of parents have taught their children to show deference to the police, in case their ‘attitude’ and ‘tone’ would excuse a trigger-happy officer followed by the usual plea that he was acting in self-defence.
Our guest this week, Hakeem Muhammad, grew up in the communities excluded by mainstream America. He argues that in our anger we should not undervalue the structural conditions that enable and safeguard those that treat their fellow man as sub-human. The structural racism that plagues American life comes from a broader ideology that shows disdain for non-European cultures and creeds. He argues powerfully that white supremacy cannot be separated from liberalism, in fact, liberal protagonists, from Locke to Jefferson, Kant to Rawls have all echoed the same mantra of America acting as a civilising force in the world. The metaphor, thus, can extend to show how America treats others. The atrocities of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo were conducted by the same people, nurtured within the same cultural climate.
Hakeem Muhammad is a Public Interest Law Scholar from Northeastern University School of Law where he also holds a Juris Doctorate Degree. He has assisted litigation to hold police departments accountable for acts of police brutality against African-Americans and to exonerate African-Americans who have been wrongly convicted of crimes. Hakeem has taught seminars on African-American legal studies at Harvard University, Michigan State, and U.C Berkeley. He is also the co-founder of Blackdawah Network a Muslim organization that promotes Islamic values and ethics within inner-city Black American communities.