A MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY FROM SHAKTITVA FOUNDATION

Sad morning, America.

Terrifying incidents of the last couple of days have shook the very soul of this nation. As one white woman was throwing a tantrum in Manhattan’s Central Park against a black man, Christian Copper, another black man, George Floyd, was getting killed in another part of the country by the very people who are supposed to protect the citizens of America, the police.

Just in the last few years, the world has watched 100s of videos of black women, black elders, black teenage girls, even black children and yes, black men, getting assaulted and killed by the police. They are killed in their own homes, they are killed while walking on the street, while jogging, while eating at a restaurant and it is rarely ever punished after prolonged legal battles. These videos are just the tip of the iceberg, since they just show those incidents which were actually recorded.

One shudders at the thought that there could be thousands of more incidents, happening daily, which never see the light of day because they were simply not recorded. Can one imagine the burden that is now put on black people for being REQUIRED to record every interaction which COULD lead to calling of the cops so that THEY don’t get arrested or murdered for simply doing the right thing or sometimes, just for existing?In Ahmaud Arbery case, the perpetrators almost got away with the wanton murder because of the perpetrator’s connections with the legal machinery. It was the surfacing of the video, that put public pressure on the government to punish the guilty.

It remains to be seen whether justice will prevail given the murder of so many Black people has gone unpunished before. It is this sense of injustice, the loss of any hope that the entrenched system can deliver justice to Black people against these killings by the very establishment that claims to provide protection to American people, that has led to the outburst that we are seeing now. We hope the system sees it as a wake-up call.

Shaktitva Foundation stands in solidarity with the black community against this systemic racism that still permeates the very roots of this country. We stand with you in your fight for Liberty and Freedom for all, not just the privileged and the white.

Sincerely,
Neha Srivastava,
President,
Shaktitva Foundation

Date: Wednesday, 27 May, 2020.