On 19 June 1862 slav­ery was abol­ished in the ter­ri­to­ries of the United States. On the eve of the day, the US of­fi­cially abol­ished slav­ery, Hous­ton res­i­dent and thinker Bhupin­der Singh says, ‘We have come a long way since then. Yet, as the events of the last month have shown us, we still have a long way to go.’ Rem­i­nisc­ing the sad demise of George Floyd, he says, ‘one knee-down, symp­to­matic of the hate that still ex­ists, has placed the is­sue again in per­spec­tive. Yet, the sub­se­quent par­don-seek­ing knee-down by po­lice and some politi­cians, the peace­ful protes­ta­tions by peo­ple of all colours, in­clud­ing Sikhs, pro­vides hope that hu­man­ity will cover the re­main­ing jour­ney how­so­ever dif­fi­cult and ar­du­ous it may be.

SO, HERE WE GO AGAIN.  AS IF OVER 119,000 DEATHS FROM COVID19 are not as­tound­ing and mind-numb­ing, we have to add one more “knee down” death to reignite the di­vide of Black and White in the United States of Amer­ica. It is rekin­dled the spirit of re­volt against dis­crim­i­na­tion across the world.

In­stead of the na­tion sober­ing from the dev­as­ta­tion of Covid-19 with “knee down” we have re­opened the wounds of Black pain. It is re­ally painful that we are still treat­ing lives dif­fer­ently based on the colour of the skin.

Even the cries of “I can’t breathe” can­not be heard by uni­formed per­son­nel trained “to pro­tect and to serve” over the chest of the vic­tim. It is truly the vi­ral ca­pa­bil­ity of the video clip that has laid bare the anger and frus­tra­tion of the seg­ment of so­ci­ety be­ing treated this way. The tragedy of this death has be­come a “trig­ger mo­ment” for pent up anger and frus­tra­tion aimed at the law en­force­ment de­part­ment.

In Hous­ton where you grew up George Floyd, we are mourn­ing for you, Min­neapo­lis is mourn­ing for you and so is the whole coun­try and the world. We are all mourn­ing so that we can make the world a bet­ter place to live – free from hate and dis­crim­i­na­tion. The word of our Guru -Gur­bani re­minds us to re­it­er­ate fa­ther­hood of God and broth­er­hood of hu­mankind.

Those who con­sider them­selves as be­ing the elite, priv­i­leged, be­cause of the colour of the skin and per­pet­u­ate dis­crim­i­na­tion will do well to an­swer the ques­tion posed by saint poet Bha­gat Kabir to the so-called elites of his times in Ba­naras in these words:

ਜੌ ਤੂੰ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣੁ ਬ੍ਰਹਮਣੀ ਜਾਇਆ ॥
ਤਉ ਆਨ ਬਾਟ ਕਾਹੇ ਨਹੀ ਆਇਆ ॥੨॥
ਤੁਮ ਕਤ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣ ਹਮ ਕਤ ਸੂਦ॥
ਹਮ ਕਤ ਲੋਹੂ ਤੁਮ ਕਤ ਦੂਧ॥੩॥

If you are in­deed a Brah­min (elite),
born of a Brah­min mother,
then why did­n’t you come in some other way?
How is it that you are a Brah­min,
and I am of low so­cial sta­tus?
Does milk flow through your veins
and blood in mine?
Guru Granth Sahib, Page 324

This is a re­al­ity check to dis­pel the per­cep­tion of su­pe­ri­or­ity. Af­ter all, we all hu­man be­ings, and have blood flow­ing through their veins along with sim­i­lar func­tion­ing or­gans and body. The in­trin­sic de­sign of every­body is the same, and colour of skin or dif­fer­ences in fa­cial fea­tures should not cre­ate a tiered totem pole. When or­gan trans­plants are per­formed the race, colour or sta­tus is not the cri­te­ria for the donors or the re­cip­i­ents. Guru Ji has put his stamp on the one­ness of mankind in these words:

ਸਭੈ ਘਟ ਰਾਮੁ ਬੋਲੈ ਰਾਮਾ ਬੋਲੈ ॥
ਰਾਮ ਬਿਨਾ ਕੋ ਬੋਲੈ ਰੇ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥

Within all hearts, God speaks; only God speaks. Who else speaks, other than the God?
Guru Granth Sahib, Page 988

Guru Sahib is say­ing it is God only speak­ing in every­one. It is time for us to ask Dr Mar­tin Luther King to come back again to make us re­al­ize that. Why is that af­ter the civil rights move­ment of the six­ties we find our­selves in this predica­ment to­day? We need you again, as there is un­fin­ished busi­ness. We need you to give voice to your fa­mous words:

“I refuse to ac­cept the view that mankind is so trag­i­cally bound to the star­less mid­night of racism and war that the bright day­break of peace and broth­er­hood can never be­come a re­al­ity.”

ਸਭ ਮਹਿ ਜੋਤਿ ਜੋਤਿ ਹੈ ਸੋਇ ॥
Amongst all is the Light-You are that Light.

Guru Granth Sahib

It is tragic that af­ter over 50 years of that his­tor­i­cal move­ment, the sit­u­a­tion to­day is still of de­spair, frus­tra­tion, pain and anger. The frenzy that has gripped the na­tion is say­ing it loud and clear that it is time for soul search­ing again. The laws of the na­tion were changed by your move­ment but now we need to change the hearts. It is time to re­mem­ber that we are all chil­dren of one God so that we see more of what is com­mon than what is dif­fer­ent. Guru Sahib has re­in­forced this sub­ject in these words:

ਸਭ ਮਹਿ ਜੋਤਿ ਜੋਤਿ ਹੈ ਸੋਇ ॥
Amongst all is the Light-You are that Light.
Guru Granth Sahib, page 13

Be­cause we are all from Your Light, You are our fa­ther:
ਏਕੁ ਪਿਤਾ ਏਕਸ ਕੇ ਹਮ ਬਾਰਿਕ ਤੂ ਮੇਰਾ ਗੁਰ ਹਾਈ॥
The One God is our fa­ther; we are the chil­dren of the One God. You are our Mas­ter (Guru)
Guru Granth Sahib, page 611

“I refuse to ac­cept the view that mankind is so trag­i­cally bound to the star­less mid­night of racism and war that the bright day­break of peace and broth­er­hood can never be­come a re­al­ity.”

Mar­tin Luther King

The knee-down by the po­lice, politi­cians and peo­ple at large in re­morse brings hope that all is not lost and George Floyd did not die in vain. He has trig­gered an­other wave of the ‘Black Lives Mat­ter’ rev­o­lu­tion which will bear re­sults for a peace­ful and equal United States, nay, the world.

An en­gi­neer by pro­fes­sion, hail­ing from Myan­mar, ed­u­cated in In­dia, Bhupin­der Singh is a Hous­ton-based busi­ness­man, with a keen in­ter­est in writ­ing books and ar­ti­cles on Sikh his­tory, mo­ti­va­tion and spir­i­tu­al­ity.

 

Car­toon Cour­tesy: Hous­ton Chron­i­cle