The situation in the United States is charged: after the death of George Floyd there are massive riots and the country is also suffering from the corona pandemic. Now it shows how racist the country is today.
It’s an old problem that literally flares up again: for the sixth consecutive night, mass protests and violent clashes between demonstrators and the police in several American states occurred again on Sunday. The protests are directed against police violence against blacks in the United States.
Was just before George Floyd, an African American from Minnesota, died in police custody last Monday: An officer from the Minneapolis Police Department had kneeled the man on the ground for almost nine minutes when he was arrested. George Floyd died shortly thereafter.
The reason why he was arrested in the meantime is almost irrelevant, because at least since the violent demonstrations after his death it has been clear that this is about something bigger than administrative offenses: America’s problem with police violence and the systematic racism in the country.
“I can’t breathe”
As much as it may be an instinctive measure for a U.S. policeman to put pressure on the back of the neck to tame someone trying to avoid arrest, the answer to it that has been on protest marches this weekend has become unmistakable a fan through several American cities echoed: “I can’t breathe”, I can’t breathe.
Passersby watching his arrest filmed George Floyd lying on the floor saying exactly these words over and over to the police officers – “I can’t breathe” just before he passed out. The words become a kind of slogan for the protest movement. And they’re not new: That was Eric Garner’s last sentence before he died.
In July 2014, the African American Garner was taken to a headlock by a police officer from the New York Police Department, Daniel Pantaleo, when he was arrested in Staten Island. He repeated “I can’t breathe” eleven times until he also passed out. Garner died in a hospital a little later.
“Racism is filmed more often”
Police violence against black citizens (and in most cases men) is not uncommon in the United States: the list is long, some names of the victims are also not unknown to Germany: Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile. The actor Will Smith said on a talk show in the summer of 2016 when it came to discrimination in the United States: “Racism has not gotten worse, it is just filmed more often.”
When Will Smith said this sentence, Barack Obama was still in the White House. The first and only African American president to date. After his election victory in November 2008, one might have thought that America was moving towards a post-racist era, an era that had overcome racism and no longer differentiates between black and white. It should be different.
The burning cities, now in May 2020 and 2014 under Obama, after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, or in the 1960s during the civil rights movement, are the result of behavior that has been learned over centuries and that can be traced back to a fundamental conflict in the United States is. It is the country’s ugly grimace that is now flashing again: With the start of the slave trade more than 400 years ago, systematic racism has established itself in American society, which can still be felt today.
“There is so much discrimination”
“It’s not just about George Floyd,” said Yvonne Passmore, an African-American citizen from Minneapolis, in an interview with the Washington Post over the weekend. “It’s about many years of being treated like second-class people – not just by the police. It’s everywhere. We don’t get reasonable health insurance. We don’t get reasonable accommodations. There is so much discrimination and it is not yet once just the judiciary. It’s all sorts of things. “
There are still cities like Chicago or Baltimore that are still ghettoized by racial segregation decades ago, divided into poor black and rich white neighborhoods. In the dilapidated, neglected neighborhoods, the chances of advancement are not nearly as high as in the wealthy neighborhoods. The schools there are underfunded, crime determines everyday life. They are structures of disadvantage that have grown over centuries and still contribute to the oppression of black citizens.
Like a lemonade bottle that has been shaken too many times
It is no coincidence that among the approximately 100,000 Covid deaths in America there are around 20,000 African Americans, i.e. around a fifth. The “black community” in the USA is more affected by the pandemic than any other, in many cases due to untreated previous illnesses and poor nutrition.
If, under these circumstances, violence against unarmed blacks accumulates within a few days, such as after the fatal gunshots against Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and the serious arrest of George Floyd, then the situation is unleashed in protests as can now be seen in the USA . From this point of view, American society is like a lemonade bottle that has been shaken too often – at some point the pressure has to discharge and then it overflows.
Due to the historical social inequality in America, the current Donald Trump protests cannot be blamed. It existed among its predecessors, it will exist after him. However, what distinguishes him from other US presidents so far is the way he responds to this national crisis.
Burning buildings despite curfew
Last Friday afternoon, when the White House pushed a short-term press conference into the President’s day schedule, it could have been expected that Trump would address the people to keep the situation from escalating further. Instead, he merely announced that he would sever all ties with the WHO.
After protesters surfaced outside the White House on Friday night, Trump tweeted Saturday morning that the Secret Service, “the meanest dogs” and “the most threatening weapons” had been waiting for potential intruders on his side of the fence.
Three steps that US presidents often follow
On Sunday evening, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser imposed a curfew on the city, and yet buildings and cars burned on the streets around the White House after protests lasting for hours.
Usually, in such moments, US presidents all do the same thing, loosing three simple steps to demonstrate leadership and reassure the nation: expressing regret, then explaining to citizens that the US is going through this crisis and then they announce a plan for how to proceed.
With a few tweets, that’s not all. A speech to unite and reconcile his country still owes Donald Trump to the United States.
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