‘I Can’t Breathe’ – Hatred Is Stifling Our World

I went to bed this last week, three nights in a row, expecting to wake up to the news that arrests have been made, and charges have been brought to prosecute these police officers responsible for the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But it took 3 days of waiting, 3 days of protests and mayhem across America, before the authorities deemed it appropriate to charge the main perpetrator of this heinous crime.

Although a lot has been said about this – I have to restate what happened. A guy…in police uniform, an officer of the police force, white guy, in an attempt to restrain a powerless and seemingly fully cooperative suspect during arrest, pressed his knee and his whole body weight down on the neck of the black 46 year old George Floyd. And at some point, the police officer looked up, with a vicious scowl on his face, as he pressed down on this guy’s neck, while the guy could be heard saying “I can’t breathe” “I can’t breathe”. And Derek Chauvin (the killer cop) maintained pressure until he literally and viciously snuffed life out of the guy!

This disgusting act of wickedness….I can’t explain, I can’t understand, and I can’t see how and why it took protests and international outcry to get them to arrest this murderer.

And it begs the question – why do people do these things? What makes a man in position exert maximum force on a fellow human….over what? His colour? His race? His religion?

It is hate! Pure evil hate. And I wonder…why do we hate? Why is hatred of humans on fellow humans so rampant in the world that we live in? What breeds hate? Why hate? Why?

Looking up the dictionary interpretation of hate, it says hate means ‘pure intense dislike’. Why would anyone feel intense dislike for another? Why?

You’re probably reading this and thinking ‘i am not one of those who hate with vicious passion the way Tunde is describing’. But I know many of us have hate in us. What differs is the extent to which each individual will go to express that hate.

Why hate? Advocates of racism say the killing of Floyd was racially motivated. Maybe it is. But it’s a matter for another day. It is still hate.

Please…..if, in these parts, someone is seen kneeling on the neck of a dog or cat, onlookers will call the animal rights authorities and get that person arrested immediately. Yet it took 4 days to charge the officer who pinned George Floyd down and snuffed his life out.

Why do we hate? We hate over race divisions. We hate based on religion. We hate out of envy. We hate because our minds are just basically twisted. And we must stop.

The land mass of this planet is 500 million square kilometres. And there are 7 billion people. There is a lot of space for each and every one of us to co-habit without hate.

I have experienced hate in the course of my work – hatred directed at me by people whose lives I do not impact on directly. Yet it has been pure and evil. Many are in my shoes. Floyd was hated and was killed. There have been many more like that. And sadly, there will still be many. Is it fair?

We must stop hating because I also see hate in two lights – one, your hatred for me does not improve you. It does not make you any better. If you hate me for my position, your hatred of me doesn’t slot you in that position.

And two, your hatred leaves a bitter legacy – you come back from work spewing hatred and your child sees it. He grows up knowing that it is alright to hate a fellow human being. The child becomes more sophisticated at his own expression of hatred and only God knows the extent to which he will go to live the legacy of mom or dad that taught him to hate. What kind of legacy is that?

I want there to be better messages of hope and positivity that we can share on these pages. And there will be. But today, it’s a sad and mournful Tunde that is saying…..PLEASE STOP HATING. #TundeTalks