Dear Editor,
In the tumultuous and hard days, weeks, months and even years ahead, I pray the voices of reason transcend those of ignorance. I pray that the people of London, white and black, yellow and brown, Muslims, Christians, Jews and atheists join in the call for peace on every street of this country. Just as we continue to call for peace in the Middle East, Africa, the Isles of the Caribbean and the world at large.
We must remain resolute in our stand against injustice wherever it raises its head. We must condemn murder wherever it is committed.
We must guard against elements in society bent on whipping up tensions. Racial aggravation will not serve the best interest of any race. Those of us who have felt the brunt of brutality, oppression and suppression know fully well that such should not be visited on any living being.
I, like many of us who care for humanity, have cried out for the sufferings of the black woman in Britain and the fruit of her womb that is made not to blossom.
We have spoken out about the systematic profiling of the black child and the environs of fear they must traverse on the brutal streets of their youth. I, like many of our black leaders and activists have pointed to the hypocrisy of white Britain and its leaders in not genuinely caring about creating an environment conducive to their proper growth and development. We will continue to do so in that onward march for real equality. We will continue to do so for real justice.
But if I fight for the cause of the black man here not to be oppressed, murdered and wrongfully imprisoned, I must equally condemn the murder of any person of any race.
I must equally condemn injustice regardless upon whom it is visited. I called for all to condemn the brutal slaying of a white man on the streets of Woolwich SE London.
Why I choose to do so has nothing to do with his colour or the colour of the perpetrators. It has to do with the beast-like way in which it was done. Murder is murder.
If my people wish to see me as an ‘Uncle Tom’ or a betrayer of the fighters against imperialism or even one who does not recognise the evils of capitalism, then so be it. I have been misjudged before. My freedom march will be for the sake of humanity.
The right to life is for every human being. Our pains are deep, our oppression continuous but emotions must never cloud our judgement. We must never become the hate that hate produced.
Yours faithfully,
Norman Browne
London
