We stood in the cold
In the snow
Wearing only shorts and t shirts
Standing in formation
Waiting for the orders to go back indoors
"They're going to single out a black man"
Private Washington said
"Why?" I asked
"We don't even know what happened"
"Doesn't matter. That's just what they'll do."
"That's not right."
"That's not the world we live in anymore"
"But that's what will happen"
"And no one will stand up for him"
We stood in the snow for almost an hour
We shivered as a unit
Until the pain became dangerous
The investigator finally walked outside and said
"Last night, someone tried to rape a female private"
"Someone in your unit knows something"
"But no one is talking"
"I feel like I'm being jerked around"
"But she's identified the perpetrator"
"So you can all go back inside"
"And since you were so uncooperative"
"Since you allowed one of your own to attack a female"
"You'll be punished as a unit"
"Except for Private Washington"
"Who is now under arrest"
As they led him away, he looked at me
With a look of resignation
And to let me know how naive I was
With my assumption
I'm afraid you're right, that it is naive to assume that we no longer live in a world, where the black man is the first one to be blamed. I am fortunate to live in a society without the history of segregation and structured racism, but even here, it is always the coloured foreigners who take the blame until the opposite is proven. Ofc backed up vigorously by the media. And we call ourselves civilised...
ReplyDeleteIt's human nature to categorize people according to appearance and point blame at the smaller group. No matter how much progress we think we've made, there are still examples here of the group screwing over an individual purely based on his appearance.
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