That being said, I intrigued when I read Malcom X's idea to bring the issue before the United Nations and have them hold the U.S. in violation of the Human Rights Charter. Yesterday was the first time I'd heard about that. Of course, it never ended up happening, and it very well may never have happened; regardless of X's death. But that's not to say that it shouldn't have happened.
The U.S. government was entirely complicit -- and sometimes cooperative -- with the systematic oppression of millions of people. I think a few of Lewis' quotes on the matter pretty well capture the mind-blowing silliness of the facts:
Sheriff Jim Clark proved today beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is basically no different from a Gestapo officer during the Fascist slaughter of the Jews...
This is but one more example of the inhuman, animal-like treatment of the Negro people of Selma, Alabama. This nation has always come to the aid of people in foreign lands who are gripped by a reign of tyranny. Can this nation do less for the people of Selma
And:
I don't know how President Johnson can sen troops to Vietnam. I don't see how he can send troops to the Congo. I don't see how he can send troops to Africa, and he can't send troops to Selma, Alabama!
Lewis was right to wonder why his government was more concerned with the plight of people on the other side of the globe than it was with those living within it's borders. Not that people halfway around the world don't deserve our help. They often do. But to ignore and/or support the gross violations of human rights on it's own shores while criticizing other countries for doing the same thing didn't do much for the credibility of the folks running the show here.
1 comments:
Mark,
Good job. Applying some of our ideas about democracy that we use abroad to the United States is a theme that runs throughout the book. You capture it very nicely. (By the way, most people say "Malcolm" for "Malcolm X," I guess since "X" wasn't really his last name)
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