Black Lives Matter

This short story begins with a reference to the tragic killing of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his killer as part of a pattern of behavior that shouts loud and clear: “black lives don9t matter”. The story traces the injustices of slavery and life and work on the plantations. It takes us from Jim Crow laws in the U.S. to the stifling of the national movement of the Congolese, from assassination of Patrice Lumumba, to the killings of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. In short, the story is a reflection on the responsibility of educators in addressing the topic that Du Bois called “the problem of the century” over a hundred years ago. It points to the importance of discussing it in various disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields including religious studies, sociology, history, ethnic studies, political science, psychology, linguistics, etc