The murder of George Floyd was the excuse, the “drop that breaks the glass,” the origin of the protest. However, the hundreds of people who yesterday filled the Plaza de la Virgen de València attended the rally organized by the Black Collective of Afro-descendants and African Valencian Community (Cnaacv) to demonstrate, loud and clear, their rejection of racism, violence to which migrant people are subject and to an Immigration law that is not for reception but for expulsion. And so, blacks and whites, Arabs, Gypsies, Latin Americans and Asians, united in defense of equality and against racism “which is a reality in the United States but also here, in Spain and in Valencia.” Similar protests took place in other cities.
The Plaza de la Virgen began to fill at 11 o’clock with people with banners, T-shirts and posters where you could read “black lives matter”, various references to George Floyd and a series of slogans that sought active involvement against racism with phrases like “there comes a time when silence is treason.” The square began to fill up and the organizers, in the presence of masks but absence of safety distance, distributed hydroalcoholic gel and sprayed attendees with sanitizing spray on several occasions.
Yesterday’s was an active protest. And so, whoever wanted picked up the microphone and addressed the crowd. “If we leave Africa it is because we have no chance. In Africa we have everything, we have gold, diamonds, oil … but it is not for us, it is not for the people. But Europe is no longer white. The world is no longer white. You have to learn from history and understand that this fight is long. The young black man, dressed in bright colors, unleashed the fervor of some assistants who responded to the cry of “no to racism.”
The vice president of the Islamic Center of Valencia, Mar Cantado, then took the floor to shout “enough is enough” of “racism and ignorance”. «I am Valencian, I am Spanish and I have papers but they send me to another country. Why? For a headscarf. I suffer from racism and I am from here so we must shout, loud and clear, not racism in all its aspects because this is not only a fight of black people, it is a fight of everyone, “explained the woman.
Thus, the attendees were picking up the microphone and expressing their discomfort at “the racism of the institutions that is global, and not an isolated event”; the rejection “of police brutality”; the fight “against inequalities”; the criticism of the Immigration law “because no human being is illegal” and the lack of empathy of an individualistic society that must make its own the fight against racism to achieve “a world without differences”.
At one point, an anonymous woman picked up the microphone. Her name is Elena Escribá and she explained how she lived racism despite her white skin and being a pure Valencian. «In 1978 I had children with an Afro-descendant. I was one of the first and you can’t imagine everything I’ve seen and heard, everything we’ve been through. And I can assure you that, 40 years later, the problems are the same. The fight is long, there is still much to do ».
Directly opposite two small children, ages 5 and 9, were holding a colorful banner that read “Everything is Color.” Her mother, Sonica, explained that now everything is cute for her two little ones. “They say ‘ayyy I want one like this …’ but what will happen when they are fifteen years older? The boy who seems so pretty to you today will become a man and … will you rent him the house? Will you find a job? Will they attack or insult you on the street? Will they see beyond their skin color? She is concerned about today, but above all, about tomorrow.
The reading of the manifesto came, which unleashed applause when affirming that «the murders of African-American people like George Floyd or Breonna Taylor are directly related to the more than 15,000 deaths in the Mediterranean, with the more than 15 deaths of black people in the Tarajal or with the deaths of victims of the racist immigration law, police raids and CIEs such as Amadou Wade, Mor Sylla, Elhadj Ndiaye, Asamuyi Akpitaye, Idrissa Diallo and Samba Martine. All these lives taken away are deaths linked to institutional and social racism ». So they asked “that their names not be erased from history.” The plaza concluded the protest with the cry “no to racism” between African music and dances.
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