The colonial curse.

All men are created equal, but are not treated equal.

The killing of George Floyd has reinvigorated the debate on racism and civil rights. That some men will continue to suffer at the hands of racist narcissists has resurfaced as an inevitable fact of life.

But one thing is clear. America is still reeling under the effects of its colonial past.

When the blacks were bought and sold in the infamous slave markets and treated worse than animals, they had no rights, no privileges, no entitlements. They were despised and degraded - only considered fit enough to toil on their (white) master's land, work on plantations, undertake labour-intensive tasks and perform all sorts of physical chores. In return, they could expect nothing. The slightest mistake could invite the harshest punishment.

The slave had no right to education. Even marriages among slaves were considered invalid. Thus, slave families could be forcefully separated with husband and wife, parents and children being sold off to different masters. Rape was common. And living conditions for slaves, especially those who worked on large plantations, were deplorable.

And though slavery was abolished during the civil war, a large number of white Americans could not reconcile themselves with this reality. They could never accept the freedom of the blacks. In their hearts and minds, many white Americans continued to desire a reversion to the era when slavery was legal. Thus, Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery only on paper, but not in practice as the blacks continued to suffer from the social barriers erected to keep them in a state of perpetual servitude.

Because the system never accepted them. They could not get enrolled in a good school. Nor could they get a good job. All avenues leading to a life full of prosperity were restricted to the whites and denied to the blacks. Some of the blacks who made it to the top did not do so without a fight and bitter struggle.

White supremacists made every attempt to marginalise the black community. Racial segregation was officially practiced. And extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) tortured and murdered the blacks.

Lynching of African Americans by white mobs, especially in the American south, became frequent. By some estimates, almost 5000 blacks were killed by lynch mobs between 1880 and 1968. White racists could act with impunity against the blacks. Black life hardly mattered to these American whites.

The blacks relied on...