It ain’t easy being black in America. Racism’s sinewy tentacles have touched almost every Ethiopian that has migrated to America since the mid-1970s and we have learned to deal with it on a daily basis at the workplace, in private and public facilities, educational institutions, and even in places of worship. Ethiopians have been harassed, attacked, beaten, and in one case, murdered by xenophobic white Americans.
Unfortunately, We have not been immune from the racist aspects of the criminal justice system either. Like most dark-skinned people in America, we are targeted on highways by bigoted cops, subjected to unreasonable searches and seizures, and serve disproportionate prison sentences in the hands of ignorant judges and all-white jurors.
Ethiopian immigrants refuse to buckle under the weight of such challenges in the land of the free. To many African immigrants, American racism pales in comparison to the hellhole their leaders have turned their countries into. For Ethiopians, racism and prejudice are particularly difficult pills to swallow. Our forefathers and foremothers prevented Ethiopia from being ruled by Ottoman sultanates and European powers and saved their descendants the attendant vestiges of subjugation that were sure to follow. Their tenacious defense of their nation produced a proud people inherently unable to bow down to anyone who claims superiority over them.
I want to be careful to not overemphasize the importance of pride in the Ethiopian makeup. By itself, pride doesn’t seem to be a very good thing - at least the nationalistic type, a precursor for the development of arrogance and extremism, to war to conflict. However, the Ethiopian type, injected with a heavy dose of humility, somehow enables its people to deal with racist cultures with patience, courage, and resilience.
Our unique blend of pride and humility is not what ultimately allows us to maintain our sanity in the face of American racism. What has enabled Ethiopians to not only survive but thrive in America is the sacrifice paid by African-Americans who made their country live up to its promises of democracy. Ethiopians and other African immigrants owe a huge debt of gratitude to African-Americans who have struggled (and continue to do so) to make America's constitutional freedoms accessible to African-Americans and to every minority group that has arrived at its shores.
Our ability to send our children to decent schools, purchase homes in good neighborhoods, obtain bank loans for our businesses, 
study in colleges of our choosing, compete for decent jobs, fight housing and workplace discrimination, vote in elections, and yes, benefit from Affirmative Action, was made possible by the blood sacrifice paid by the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and thousands of nameless African-Americans who have died to make their society equal since the first slave ships arrived in America. Freedom was never given to our black brothers and sisters: they wrangled it from the deathly grips of America’s three braches of government.
study in colleges of our choosing, compete for decent jobs, fight housing and workplace discrimination, vote in elections, and yes, benefit from Affirmative Action, was made possible by the blood sacrifice paid by the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and thousands of nameless African-Americans who have died to make their society equal since the first slave ships arrived in America. Freedom was never given to our black brothers and sisters: they wrangled it from the deathly grips of America’s three braches of government.
Notwithstanding its harsh realities (and there are many), America remains an awe-inspiring nation. Last week’s senate confirmation hearings of soon-to-be Justice Alito reconfirmed the enduring Madisonian conviction that government, if not checked, cannot be trusted; that the rule of law is perfected by constant friction between the government and individuals. In my opinion, William Jefferson Clinton has defined America better that anyone: “there is nothing wrong in America that cannot be fixed with what is right in America.” It is this built-in self-correcting mechanism that makes America the most incredible nation-state since the Peace of Westphalia.
We Ethiopians who have interlocked our fate with that of America’s understand that democracy is an arduous work in progress. Our contributions are important to not only the ongoing American democratic experiment but to that of Ethiopia’s as well. What is preternaturally disturbing about the EPRDF is not just its point-blank shooting of underage protesters and criminal indictment of political leaders. It is its belief that democracy in Ethiopia is a fait accompli and that only its prescription for democracy is reasonable. The greatest irony is that a party with roots deep in protest politics should have internalized the notion that governance without protest is an exercise in tyranny; that government by its very nature must be contained, limited, and constantly checked. Time after time, the EPRDF has shown a brutal willingness to sacrifice its own constitutional protections on the altar of political survival.
Today, we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a brave American warrior whose life was cut short at the tender age of 39 but whose words and actions have deeply impacted this nation that has given thousands of Ethiopians a home away from home. We celebrate the life of a young man whose tireless work and dream has allowed us and our children to enjoy America in all its forms.
In honoring MLK we also celebrate the rights to assemble, petition, and to protest, rights so vital for a democracy yet rendered criminal liabilities by a government that defines itself as “revolutionary” and “democratic.”
LBJ signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act
