Kashmiri boy (Aasif Shafi) July 18 2018
The anger of this young boy attending the funeral of a militant in Kashmir last month explains why youth are always targeted in freedom struggles. Targeting children is not a new phenomenon in war, occupation, genocide. It was malignantly evident throughout the period of Jim Crow rule (US form of apartheid) particularly in the form of cartoons & “pickaninny art” showing Black infants being imperiled. The classic was a Black infant suspended by one hand holding a twig over a crocodile pit. Children represent a new generation of rebels against oppression & injustice & if they cannot be terrorized into quiescence & submission, they must be destroyed. That is why war, occupation, genocide are always children’s welfare issues.

(Photo by Aasif Shafi)