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Nearly 25 years ago, I kissed my mother goodbye in a crowded airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She was fleeing an authoritarian state that threatened her personal and professional liberties. My mother had the trifecta of sins: she was of Oromo-ethnicity ; she was a journalist; and she was progressive. It would be four years before I saw my mother again, when we reunited in what has been our imperfect but adopted home of America.
Like my mother and me, millions others have immigrated to the U.S., fleeing war, economic oppression, ethnic conflicts and an infringement of personal rights. In many ways, despite American’s deeply flawed systems, we found new citizenship, refuge and freedom. Freedom that undoubtedly came from the uncompromising struggle for civil liberties, fought for and won by descendants of slaves in America.
America has always been a country of contradictions. A beacon of freedom except for slaves. A bastion of meritocracy except for the poor. A country of immigrants except for non-whites. But despite its duality, America has always been unique because of its ideals. And these ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have provided the moral mandate for the continual strive for justice.
In the wake of George Floyd’s lynching, we have witnessed a deeply racist disregard for Black lives by President Trump. He has employed classic authoritarian tactics, such as the demonization of protesters by calling them “thugs,” and promoting state-sponsored violence through statements such as ‘’when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” These actions beg for not a political reckoning, but a moral reckoning of America.
Despite the general sentiment of American exceptionalism, we are not immune from authoritarianism. And the perfect storm of a pandemic, an economic depression, deeply entrenched racism and a mental health crisis have the potential to create the volatile conditions that often facilitate power consolidation. For a president who specializes in harnessing fear, Trump seems to be orchestrating a strategy that would enable him to lead as he has always wished — an autocrat.
The brutal killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and so many other precious lives is a tragedy for America, for humanity and for democracy.
On Friday, May 29, 2020, from the headquarters of the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat released a statement “urging the authorities in the United States of America to intensify their efforts to ensure the total elimination of all forms of discrimination based on race or ethnic origin.”
Protesters who have chosen liberty over life, in the midst of a pandemic, deserve a democratic system that honors their voice. We can not wait until November to fight authoritarianism. We cannot wait until November to stand up for people of color.
In September 2016, I along with 100 immigrants in Boston became a naturalized citizen and took the oath “to support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” We are unequivocally facing a domestic threat. And we all have to do what we can to fight a system that indignifies, dehumanizes and obliterates people of color, starting in our neighborhoods, our workplaces and our local governments.
But this can’t only be about grassroots efforts. We also need our elected officials, business leaders, civil society advocates and celebrities to make a moral stand and to be accountable now.
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Yordanos Eyoel is an Ethiopian-American building an eco-system for democracy entrepreneurship in America. She is the co-founder and international spokesperson for the Sister March Network that mobilized 4 million people for the 2017 Women’s March.
