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Human Rights
Violations in the 21ST
Century of African Americans in the United States?
By Anthony Bouyer, PhD
Guest Column
The subject of human rights has always been a debatable
topic for years and will continue to be discussed as human
rights are ever-evolving and expanding to include new
rights.
One could argue that the most important right humans have is
the right to life. All humans, no matter what their position
is in life, know of and understand the basic right to life.
Beyond the basic right to life bestowed on all humans for
having membership in the human race, comes conceptualization
and the interpretations of rights. Norberto Bobbio
(translated by Allan Cameron) describes human rights as
“Those recognition is a necessary condition for the
improvement of humanity of the development of civilization”
What is considered a right, beyond breathing? Patrick Hayden
(The Philosophy of Human Rights, 2001), states the
rights one has, by just being human, are both justifiable
moral claims and contested political realities (p. XV). The
contested political realities of human rights have been the
battleground for formulation of human rights.
Hayden discusses early political expressions of the moral
claim to human equality are found in the American
Declaration of Independence, which asserts “all men are
created equal.” The framers of the American Declaration of
independence were far from accepting all humans as equals,
as stated by French (2004),
Benjamin Banneker, black surveyor and astronomer, eloquently
acclaimed “the Declaration of Independence represented a
sacred covenant with God. Banneker chided Thomas Jefferson
and his fellow American patriots for violating the spirit,
if not the letter, of that covenant “in detaining by fraud
and violence so numerous a part of my brethren, under
groaning captivity and cruel oppression.”
One could ask the question, were the framers of the
Declaration of Independence without morality as the
institution of slavery was founded on the notion that some
individuals were less than human, such as Africans and
indigenous peoples, even though they were members of the
human family?
Many will argue that the framers of the Declaration were
responding to the time in which they lived. However, human
rights had been a matter of discussion for hundreds of years
prior to the Declaration of Independence, as noted by
Hayden, “Cicero contributed greatly to the theory of natural
law, arguing that individuals have an obligation to respect
their fellow human beings and that the laws of all political
communities are legitimate only insofar as they conform to
the higher law of nature.”
Several months ago, I wrote an op-ed on
Ohio Republican law
makers attempting to introduce a new bill HB228 “Stand Your
Ground.” If passed the bill would eliminate a person’s “duty
to retreat” if they feel their life is in danger.
In such a case, the shooters would have to “reasonably
believe” that they or someone else is in imminent danger,
even if in hindsight that belief turns out to be wrong.
Deadly force could also be deployed to prevent commission of
a forcible felony such as a kidnapping or assault.
Why am I questioning human rights violations of African
Americans today? History is fascinating and cruel. History
also teaches us to recognize our mistakes and learn from
them so that we don’t repeat past cruelties.
A chief justice once elaborated that the Declaration of
Independence wasn't created with black people in mind. And
here's why. Many people tend to know "routine" black history
facts. Every year, the same names pop up in searches. Yet,
although they're important, what about the little-known
facts which are equally important. In several cases,
American history tends to water down events in its past —
those which show the country in a dark state. While it's
supposedly "in the past," those events tends to linger today
for African Americans.
While the Declaration of Independence is an American
heritage, black people only became included in that
particular history nearly 100 years after its creation— by
then, having been treated less than human for the course of
a century.
Before black citizenship, it was legal to hunt black people
and use their children as "gator bait." Yes, literally.
Alligator bait, a/k/a gator bait, is the practice of using
little black children of slaves as bait to catch alligators.
After slavery
in U.S. numerous laws were enacted in the states of the
former
Confederacy
– Black Codes – and intended to assure the
continuance of
white supremacy.
Enacted in 1865 and 1866, the
laws were designed to replace the social controls of
slavery
that had been removed by the
Emancipation Proclamation
and the
Thirteenth Amendment
to the Constitution.
Enforcement of slave codes also varied, but
corporal punishment
was widely and harshly
employed.
Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local statutes
that legalized racial segregation. Named after a
black minstrel show
character, the laws—which existed for about 100 years, from
the post-Civil
War
era until 1968—were meant to marginalize African Americans
by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an
education or other opportunities. Those who attempted to
defy Jim Crow laws often faced arrest, fines, jail
sentences, violence and death.
Violence was on the rise, making danger a regular aspect of
African-American life. Black schools were vandalized and
destroyed, and bands of violent whites attacked, tortured
and lynched black citizens in the night. Families were
attacked and forced off their land all across the South. The
KKK grew into a secret vigilante society terrorizing black
communities and seeping through white Southern culture, with
members at the highest levels of government and in the
lowest echelons of criminal back alleys..
Events in the 21st century mirror our present to
our past with respect to African Americans and their quest
for human rights. Breonna Taylor’s and
Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shootings by Louisville police officer
and two white men in the state of Georgia, respectively, are
only a few who have died for the
rights one has by just being human. Ahmaud’s for having the
audacity to partake in a free activity by jogging, and
Breonna being secured and asleep in her own home. Both were
denied their rights as members of the human race.
There are some human rights violations so egregious, just by
definition are un-defendable including but not limited to
genocide, and mass rape. Some human rights were challenged.
Cranston states the reason for the challenging of rights
can be traced in history, first, in the great
twentieth-century evils, Nazism, fascism, total war, and
racialism, which all have presented a fierce challenge to
human rights.”
Yet we see the attempted challenging of Breonna’s and
Ahmaud’s human rights. Two prosecutors refusing to indict
the shooters of Ahmaud and questionable obtaining of no
knock warrants to kill Breonna and to arrest her boyfriend
for protecting his family in their own home.
My uncle was shot by Toledo police in the eighties during a
no knock warrant. The warrant was for the upstairs unit and
the police in their zeal to execute their no knock warrant
entered my uncle’s home, who at the time had a
developmentally-challenged adult living with him. My uncle
was shot in the foot, and by the grace of God his right to
life was not taken from him.
The world regards human rights violations as a moral wrong
of the most serious nature, and presumably continues to
condemn such practices. Some relativists would even agree
that a few basic human rights such as the right to life and
freedom, are absolute in the sense that cultural traditions
(black codes, Jim Crowe etc) may not override them. All
human beings deserve protection regardless of where people
are situated,
Responsibility for a person’s human rights falls on all and
not just those who participate with this person in the same
social system. It is our responsibility collectively, to
structure this system so that all its participants have
secure access to the objectives of their human rights.
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