It is time now to call for action and tranquility
The recent killing of two African-Americans by the security forces and a followed up encounter of the police with the protesting crowd which eventually witnessed the shooting down of five policemen in the hands of snipers, have fundamentally put a question mark on the country's precarious relationship between the white and the blacks in the past. It seems, tragic events like these, may once again bring to the fore the deep divide between the two communities and the thin silver line of tolerance may go thinner as a strong current of reclaiming the ‘nationalist' is making waves from America to Europe today. Two incidents within a gap of even less than a week have raised the panoply of fear and resentment among the African Americans.
Also, they widely feel that US President Barack Obama, who is so sensitive about the inbuilt divisions related to race rage in American society, is appearing helpless throughout his two terms to bring an image of a stronger and a composite society at home. Police accountability and racial bias is at the centre of public debate since August 2014 when a black teenager was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson. As of now, both black anger at police killings and a slow but sustained frustration among some whites that they are fast losing their long held place in the American society have been potent undercurrents in the country for such conflicts quite some time. Basically, first the killings of two black men and then counter killings of five white police officers have helped coalescing the aggrieved people into a single point of national angst within no time like fire.
This reminds many of the Americans the summers of deep discontents of 1960s in los Angeles which lead to widespread urban street violence in the country. Sociological experts and police investigators hold the view that racial tension is moving to a point which may sow the seeds for a much longer and faster bitterness and gloom in the American society by creating a seemingly unbridgeable gulf between the whites and the blacks.
It is for sure, some fundamentalists and tyrants will always hate America for its global reach and openness, but ironically the same old bunch of critics love to make America their home for the opportunities it offer for a better life and living. Though some hard nuggets of hate fuelled tension in both the white and black communities across, it should no way be allowed to break the multi-cultural universe of the nation. America needs to pull through these tragedies and continue to rise beyond the sudden spurt of tensions between the police and the African-Americans. Hope the current chain of violent events comes to a stop the way Obama feels: ‘This is not just a black issue, not just a Hispanic issue.
This is an American issue that we all should care about'. However, the world demands a far better and safer America even beyond what Obama aspires. Remaining number one for America starts right here at home and Obama must be able to reassure the huge black community and address their fast fading trust on the state machinery. As his globe-trotting rhetoric's minus firm action have largely irked most of its old allies mainly in the war-torn Middle East, it is time now the country must have a stronger leader who will not wrestle anymore with how best to combine the American power and values while reducing vulnerabilities for the nation both at home and abroad.