Dr. Iva Carruthers, the General Secretary of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, Inc, (SDPC) said this week at an ecumenical hearing on racism, xenophobia, discrimination and Afrophobia held at at the UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland , said that in spite of the reality of what she calls a “racialized hierarchy of human value” that people of African descent will not stop the fight for human dignity and human rights.
“We have moved from a moment of mass incarceration to a moment of mass criminalization,” she said at the hearing which is part of the work of the United Nations’ International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024).
Her remarks were particularly strident as they were spoken even as the president of the United States embarked on a twitter rant against African American athletes who have decided to “take a knee” in protest against the unjust treatment of black people in this country.
In spite of being American, African Americans have been and continue to be denied full human and civil rights. While the president framed his criticism of the “take the knee” movement as a sign of disrespect of the American flag, it is a fact that many white Americans have refused to honor African American war veterans once they have returned home, and the unbridled run of excessive police violence against people of color and especially against black men, is viewed as evidence of the refusal of the American government to abandon racist practices, policies and laws.
Carruthers noted the stubborn persistence of Afrophobia, and said the era of mass criminalization of black people reveals that a whole race of people are being adversely affected.
”We have moved from a moment of mass incarceration to a moment of mass criminalization. What does it mean to have Afrophobia in the context of declaring a whole race of people (to be) criminals?” she asked. “This mindset has led to the criminal estate of being black. The mass movement of Black Lives Matter (BLM) youth is criminalized. The actions of a United States black president are criminalized. The lynching effort of a bi-racial 10-year old boy is criminalized.” She said that people of color have now come back to the United Nations to attest to “our Africanity, our humanity and our spirituality.”
In spite of the assault on black lives and the human and civil rights of black people, she said, “we will keep coming.”
Faith leaders, she said, and the church must name racism for what it is: “evil, based on an “othering process.” She said, “The question for the church is, what will the church do? We must counter the ubiquitous dominion theology which undergirds all that is going on, which says that until Christians take over the world, the world is unsafe.”
As Carruthers spoke in Switzerland, the president of the United States spoke words of fiery rhetoric against North Korean President Kim Jung Un, and then began in earnest to voice his opposition to black athletes protesting the social and racial injustice against African Americans which is part of the fabric and history of this nation.
At a campaign-style rally in Alabama late last week, the president was critical of Colin Kaepernick and others who have “taken a knee.” To a wildly enthusiastic crowd, he suggested that anyone who protests in that manner should be fired.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’”, the president said. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/59cab2b9e4b03faa973bee8f)
While the president has said his remarks are not racially-driven but are rather a commitment to his belief that the American flag should be respected, others, noting that the National Football League and the National Basketball Association are populated primarily by black athletes, and they are the ones who are most often “taking the knee.”
Carruthers said that Afrophobia will have to be eliminated on a “spiritual, emotional and psychosocial level” in order to obliterate the premises of white supremacy.
“Atonement begins with the faith community supporting truth-telling commissions,” she said, noting that SDPC has already begun to work with partners around the world in truth-telling work.
“We must return to reparatory justice,” she said. “We must do, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “stay in the struggle until the end.”