It’s time to stop looking at Blacks as inhuman

When D Wilson, a Ferguson cop described Brown as demon, it was not far from what the whites (Many of them, at least) along with other communities(who remain silent) believe it to be true.

The blacks have been belittled, disrespected and considered as less than human and as such they don’t deserve to be a part of the human race.

Several facts point towards the conclusion I have arrived at. Disrespecting the President of USA and the Attorney General has become a normal theme for the elected representatives of Congress. It is no secret that black athletes, NFL, NBA and Baseball league are made a poster child for the wrongs done but at the same time, the whites so unashamedly go to watch the games to feel good of their home team winning and end up chest thumping. The deaths of the 12 year old kid who held a toy gun, the Brown of Ferguson, the choke hold that caused the death of a man in NY, the death of an young adult in Michigan- all at the hands of police have not caused a dent in the way of life of the whites and our White Congressional leaders.

When I first came to this country to attend interviews for a Residency position in Psychiatry in 1996, my older brother in Fairfax ,VA put me in a train to attend an interview in D.C. I had to change trains halfway. The first train I boarded had a cosmopolitan crowd. I was dressed in a suite and a long leather coat. I changed trains to reach my destination. It took a few minutes for me to realize that the compartment I was in was only filled with blacks. It didn’t bother me to a great extent but something inside me made me to be very alert. I got down in the final destination which was D.C and as I walked out to the bus terminus which was just outside the station, I looked at the buses not knowing which one to board. I lit a cigarette as I tried to loosen up, seeing only blacks in the terminus. Within a few minutes A tall black man, enetered my personal space and demanded that I give him a cigarette. For some unknown reason, I refused but the man stood so close and wouldn’t budge. I had smoked half the cigarette and threw it down which he picked and moved on. Then a couple of females approached me and asked for a couple of dollars and I denied their request. They cursed me out (to put it mildly). I boarded the bus that was in front of me due to some unknown fear. The bus took me to St Elizabeth Hospital but I got down on the first gate when I was supposed to be getting down at the fifth gate. So I made a mile long walk as I watched blacks sitting on the pavement and drinking beer at 9 AM and talking loudly. I reached the gate 5 as fast as my legs could carry me and on reaching the office, I was told that my interview was scheduled at 11 AM. I asked for coffee to which the secretary told me to go the shop on the street and I just walked back to the street that made me nervous. I gathered courage as my need for coffee took a dire need and walked down the street. I entered a shop with grilled gate and the shop attendant was sitting behind a bullet proof glass and taking money through an opening and the money could be passed only through the sides as there was another bullet proof partition preventing me from passing cash straight.

This was my first encounter with blacks. Then I remembered my supervisor in a Psychiatry Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand who recommended me and asked me to take care of his community. He was of Haitian descent, an American citizen and a black. I never found him to be intimidating or causing any fear.

As I became a Psychiatrist after finishing my Residency( No blacks did training during the four years), I was employed in a non profit organization in another city which was forty five minutes drive from where I lived. Some of the patients who got admitted to the inpatient treatment for drug abuse were whites, more than the blacks, who were drug dealers. When I practiced independently, I had many black patients who were utmost respectful. There were many blacks married to white women who had public aid and to be frank most if not all white women married to blacks were house wives. Their husbands did some menial jobs. I had a black mother who put her two daughters through Medical School and brought her son who was diagnosed with a Psychotic illness. I saw two parents bring their daughter who was in College during her appointments. I was paid by a mother who paid my fees in cash so that her son could get the best help (and my fees were not cheap).

I had encouraged my own children to make friends with blacks during their High School days. All their friends were whites, Indians and Hispanics. But no blacks. I don’t know whether they were influenced by their white friends or felt they could be ostracized or the black kids felt comfortable in their own skin and did not bother to my kids outreach. My kids had a lot of empathy for the downtrodden and I have reached out to a Hispanic family whose son was a friend of my daughter’s and needed help.

It is not fair for any parent to see their own child die an untimely death especially so when their lives ended not due to a natural cause. Start to put yourself in their place and begin to feel the vacuum created for no fault of yours or the victims. Their lives are not going to be the same, ever. Start to see them as human beings and if one believes in a God of any religion, how could one answer Him/Her when you are asked what you did to better your life. Raise your voice now when it matters, to make justice delivered is the same for everyone irrespective of race, class or creed. It is hard to take a stand but sometimes it is much harder to live with the guilt, if one has a conscience. Blacks deserve to be one among us - is it too much of an asking?