| | | | BERİL DEDEOĞLU
b.dedeoglu@todayszaman.com | ![]() |
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| | Sometimes societies are ready to change fundamentally; they just wait for a spark. | |
The spark may be the death of a man. Symbolic deaths, such as the death of Jesus Christ, make people realize that the existing socio-political order no longer satisfies their demands. Thus, people who were unable to express their grievances until then and who notice that the current system is unfair take to the streets. Turkish history is full of events like this, and the funeral of murdered Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is a perfect example of this phenomenon. We also remember Mohamed Bouazizi, the young Tunisian street vendor who set himself alight, starting a fire that burned down several authoritarian regimes in the Middle East.
The history of the United States is also full of similar dramatic events. The 1960s were particularly rich in this regard, and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Robert Kennedy changed the country fundamentally. Last year, a 17-year-old American, Trayvon Martin, was killed by George Zimmerman. The problem is that the killer is white, while the victim was black. The jury found Zimmerman not guilty by reason of self-defense and believed him when he said he is terribly sorry and that he had had good intentions but events just went terribly wrong.
As expected, the verdict has made many people angry. Even US President Barack Obama, who is the first black president in American history, said he understands the nation's frustration but that the US is a nation of law and a jury has spoken. It would seem that seeing “one of them” in the White House has not been enough for black Americans to feel they are now equal citizens. Obama's election did not eradicate all discrimination in the United States. Instead, maybe his presence in office has made ongoing discrimination less visible to society.
People suffer discrimination all around the world because of their color, religion, race or sexual orientation. A woman can become prime minister or a homosexual the mayor of the country's capital, but these things do not mean all that all discrimination has suddenly stopped.
The Trayvon Martin case has shown that the tension between whites and blacks is still strong in the US. Additionally, the entire world has learned that someone can kill another man in the US and be found not guilty just because he was a neighborhood watch coordinator. It seems that Zimmerman's only concern was to “protect” his white neighbors. The world is full of people like him. For example, last week, some “volunteers” armed with knives and sticks attacked Gezi protesters in İstanbul, but a court decided to release one of them. He then flew to Morocco.
The problem is the perceived gap between law and justice. The existing laws that judges must follow do not always bring justice. The judiciary does not think about what the social consequences of its verdicts might be, either. That is why society sometimes believes the judiciary itself is the very source of injustice.
Black people in the US are now demonstrating in the streets, and Obama's political opponents will certainly use this against him. They will probably say that President Obama, who became president thanks to the votes of black people, is not serving them. This is already Obama's second term, so he cannot run again for office. The Democrats would, of course, like to keep the White House for another four years; however, Obama's mistakes are not helping them. As a consequence, the Republicans, and the Tea Party, are becoming stronger. A Tea Party-ruled US, however, would mean an aggressive country, and this would be bad news for all of us.
The members of the jury in the Trayvon Martin case were most probably unaware of global realities, but sometimes a single man dies and the world changes. |
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