Regarding the May 30 story “Protests over George Floyd's death spread across U.S.,” news media have provided live coverage of protesters vandalizing public property or spraying buildings with graffiti. The protesters say “property can be replaced, a human life cannot” in the name of protesting for equality. I can understand the degree of anger these people have. People cannot ignore the horrible situation any longer, and thus people express their anger not by speaking out, but by vandalizing.
It is true that after nearly 60 years since the civil rights movement, white society is still thought to be dominant today in the U.S. I am Japanese. I am Asian. I love America. I have never experienced any obnoxious behavior in the U.S., but still I always have certain feelings while traveling: the fear of being discriminated against and the fear of being denied because of my nationality and appearance, which is why I can understand how fearful it is for African American people to live in the hypocritical “normalcy” where some heinous incidents occur.
It is high time that we stand up and act again as brave men and women did in the past. The protests seem to be violent, but nothing has changed by just pointing out the injustice with the hope of joining hands. We must not ignore George Floyd’s death. It happened. We cannot restore his live of the lives of others killed through injustice, but we can stop such such unreasonable killings from happening again. Nobody should overlook the situation.
Now I am being one of the protesters for equality and justice, although I am not in America, saying with my head held high that I will “continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive,” as Martin Luther King Jr. said in his “I Have a Dream” speech.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.