Tag: racism

Trump in Hot Water Over ‘White Power’ Tweet

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In the wake of a massive backlash, US President Trump deleted a Twitter video he posted on Sunday featuring a supporter chanting “white power” at anti-Trump protestors. 

Someone one the scene took the video during Trump’s campaign visit to “The Villages,” a retirement community in Florida. The Republican president retweeted the video at 7:30 a.m. on June 28. In the first seconds of the clip, a man driving a gulf buggy emblazoned with “Trump 2020” and “America First” signs can be heard screaming “white power” at a counter-protestor holding a “Make America Sane” placard. 

Trump captioned the video, originally posted by an unidentified user, “thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe [Biden] is shot. See you soon!!!”

The tweet comes at a time when the United States’ explosive Black Lives Matter protests and movement has massive momentum, and racial tensions in America are running high in the wake of George Floyd’s death.  

Trump’s implied endorsement of a white supremacist slogan triggered an overwhelming wave of negative backlash and by 11:00 a.m. the video was deleted from Trump’s twitter feed. 

American response

People from both sides of America’s political divide united in their criticism of the tweet. Black Republican South Carolina Senator Tim Scott labelled the tweet “indefensible,” telling CNN, “he [Trump] should not have retweeted.”

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden responded on Twitter on June 28 saying, “Today the President shared a video of people shouting ‘white power’ and said they were ‘great.’ Just like he did after Charlottesville” — a reference to a 2017 Trump tweet where he referred to neo-Nazis as “very fine people.”   

“We’re in a battle for the soul of the nation — and the President has picked a side. But make no mistake: it’s a battle we will win,” he added. 

Biden followed up those comments on Monday declaring, “white supremacy should be rooted out and relegated to the pages of history — not promoted by the President of the United States.” 

The White House responded to the incendiary tweet with a statement that failed to apologize, instead claiming Trump did not hear the “white power” comment. 

“President Trump is a big fan of The Villages. He did not hear the one statement made on the video,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said in a statement.  

“What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.” 

Health Secretary Alex Azar also jumped to the president’s defense during a CNN interview saying that although he had not seen the tweet in question, “obviously neither the President, his administration nor I would do anything to be supportive of white supremacy or anything that would support discrimination of any kind.”

Read also: US Sees New COVID-19 Peak, Trump Aims to Cut Testing

Lebanese Blogger Calls out French Fashion Industry Racism

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Samar Seraqui de Buttafoco is elegant, chic, stylish, and a sustainable fashion entrepreneur who lives in the 7thArrondissement of Paris.  

On paper, the blogger originally from Lebanon, sounds like the quintessential Parisienne, but according to a conversation with her manager posted to Instagram, she was not “Parisian enough” to grace the pages of the as yet unnamed French fashion magazine.  

Outraged by the latest rejection, the influencer shared the message with her over 100 000 Instagram followers, sparking strong reactions and support from other Arab and women of colour in the fashion industry.  

The Rejection  

“Well, that won’t work for (the anonymous magazine), not Parisian enough, you’re a certain type. Next time for sure…” Seraqui de Buttafoco’s manager said.

The Lebanese-born woman replied, “I forgot that Parisians are white,” to which her manager responded, “I know, shameful.” 

“The beautiful words of fashion,” a clearly upset Seraqui de Buttafoco responded.  

In the caption accompanying the exchange, Seraqui de Buttafoco said she has been subjected to a “systematic racism” by the French fashion industry that constantly “casts her aside” but has remained resilient, and unshaken by such rejections. 

“If one day, I have a daughter I’ll call her Simone, like Simone Veil, and many other Simones who have given me the desire to be Parisienne, above and beyond your stereotypes which are so far from the reality in French society,” the influencer said in a message clearly bound for the unnamed magazine in question. 

“I do have that “je ne sais quoi,” the elegance not to name you,” she added in a final parting shot.

The former political journalist rose to prominence through her wildly popular style blog “Une Libanaise a Paris,” (A Lebanese in Paris) and is now creative director of her own ethically produced t-shirt brand “Das Mots” (The Word). Seraqui de Buttafoco and “Das Mots” have been featured in publications like Vogue Arabia, Vanity Fair France, and Elle, and while she has abandoned her blog, maintains a strong following on Instagram and Facebook. 

The Reaction 

One of the people to come out in support of Seraqui de Buttafoco was her friend and French style icon, model, designer, and aristocrat Ines de la Fressange. 

“Parisians are rarely born in Paris, and this brand is stupid and does not deserve you!” she replied to the post.  

“I am half Argentinian, with Czech, Polish and Colombian blood,” De la Fressange, considered by many to be the quintessential “Parisienne,” added. 

The French-Moroccan blogger and founder of ‘Beatnik Creation’ Hassana Rabeh, said she was shocked by the fact such racism still exists in the French fashion industry. 

“I’m actually in the metro and it’s surprising, the majority of Parisians don’t look like the clichés that brands and magazines try to sell us,” she sarcastically pointed out in an Instagram story on the topic.  

“How many French bloggers of Arabic origins do you see…who are invited to big fashion shows, who do collaboration with major brands?” she asked in another story.  

“One day maybe it will change,” exclaimed hopeful Paris based actress and model Hajar Abourachid. 

Fashion Instagram page, “J’adore la France” (I love France) commented its support for Seraqui de Buttafoco and said that page had been created to provide a more accurate image of what a “Parisienne” woman really is, and to prove that “French girls are not only blonde white and skinny.” 

“Thanks to Samar [Seraqui de Buttafoco] for speaking about the racism that many women who work in fashion and want to participate in campaigns where the aesthetic is said to be “Parisienne,” are victims of. This type of talk and response is shameful and should be denounced,” it said.

The growing prevalence of pages like “J’adore la France” show that French society is starting to recognise and value its inherent diversity. Recent rallies against the death of George Floyd, and French man Adama Troare’s death in custody have shone a light on the dark, often hidden but insidious nature of racism in French society — a country built on liberty, equality and brotherhood where people, in theory “don’t see race.” 

Protests in cities across France, alongside individual incidents like the one highlighted by Seraqui de Buttafoco have forced wider society to take notice. It remains to be seen if they can actually open up the conversation about systemic racism in French society and bring about genuine change.

Read also: Tunisian Parliament Votes Down Bill Calling for Apology from French Colonists

The United States Is In a State of Crisis

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In the midst of a global combined economic and public health crisis, American stock markets have been doing rather well. The country has pumped trillions into its large corporations which has avoided a large-scale market crash such as that seen in 2008. But while Wall Street remains relatively intact, the rest of the country is spiraling into chaos due to several inter-connected crises.

Just a month ago it was incomprehensible that any news could top the historic global pandemic as 2020’s biggest story. But a wave of protests across the United States has highlighted that the country is suffering from more than just COVID-19.

Crisis in health

After months of economically painful lockdowns, curfews, and restrictions the US is reopening the economy even as its cases continue to climb. Wednesday, June 10, saw the two millionth COVID-19 case recorded. US President Donald Trump has pushed for reopenings even while many public health experts warn the nation might still be in the first wave of infections.

Those who died from COVID-19-related complications have disproportionately comprised minorities, and continue a sad historic trend of hitting the country’s Black communities the worst.

The unique nature of the US healthcare system means many will now face thousands of dollars in medical bills just as a “tsunami” of bankruptcies is due to hit in the aftermath of lockdowns that saw millions lose their jobs.

Crisis in inequality

The brutal death of George Floyd served as another painful reminder that the United States still has not created even a semblance of parity between Black and white people in the country. The death of another Black man in police custody triggered protests around the country, and a heavy backlash from the country’s elites.

Media and many officials instantly painted the protests as violent riots, and labeled protesters “looters.” State officials and media channels rushed to discredit the genuine demands of the mostly peaceful protests. The anti-racism demonstrations have since been used by agent provocateurs from groups advocating for a second civil war to stir up more violence and resentment between racial and economic sections of the population.

Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Chris Hedges has called the government response to protests “treason by the ruling class” and says a “mafia state” has replaced the country’s capitalist democracy. “We are serfs ruled by obscenely rich,” Hedges wrote in Common Dreams, saying the country’s wealthy constitute “omnipotent masters who loot the U.S. Treasury, pay little or no taxes and have perverted the judiciary, the media and the legislative branches of government.”

According to Hedges, who has seen several countries spiral into chaos and war, the US has only two possible paths left: Revolution or tyranny.

Crisis in the economy

The country’s shocking poverty has only worsened in a time of record highs in the country’s stock markets. The disconnect between main street and wall street is now painfully exposed as news of record highs in the NASDAQ feature on the same front pages as record numbers of deaths, unemployment, an approaching “avalanche” of evictions, and severe public discontent.

The crisis has similarly exposed the country’s nearly defunct labor laws to daylight as millions were immediately laid off from their jobs when lockdowns became a reality. Constantly clicking refresh on overwhelmed and continuously crashing state unemployment websites, citizens have started to realize that a welfare state is not a comfortable “handout” to those too lazy to work, as politicians have told them for years.

Instead people have been left to their own devices with little help from the government outside a one-time stimulus check that did not cover rent and expenses in most US cities. For decades Americans have swallowed tax cuts for big business, but the crisis has again proven that businesses actually have a responsibility to create as few jobs as possible to ensure maximum profits for shareholders.

Crisis in leadership

Amid the disintegration of the American social contract, US Donald Trump is rapidly undoing the post-WW2 era unspoken agreement that has sustained American hegemony. For decades, the US paid the most to global institutions such as the WHO and NATO. In exchange the US did not have to decolonize, was able to invade nations at will, and made its currency the favored exchange in the international market.

But President Donald Trump apparently considers that the country’s superior military strength alone should be enough to force the global community into compliance. By withdrawing funding from the WHO, pressuring NATO allies into paying higher dues, and sanctioning the world’s highest court, Trump is changing the image of the US from a benevolent global empire into a rogue state.

Vetoes at the Security Council are casually and repeatedly suppressing the will of the global community, while calls for mercy on states suffering under crippling US sanctions remain ignored. Trump has willfully broken the unspoken agreement between the US and the world, silently approved by Democrats who have signed off on every increase of the military budget, corporate hand-out, and even his wall on the Mexican border.

With America’s reputation badly damaged abroad and civil discord in the streets at home, the US is facing a historic crisis that could precipitate the final tumultuous decline of “global America” as we know it today.

EU Human Rights Court Rules in Favor of BDS Movement

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France has violated the freedom of expression of activists of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement (BDS) that aims to protest Israeli apartheid. The ruling is significant as the EU is seeing increasing repression of pro-Palestinian activism, which Israeli lobbyists paint as antisemitic.

French courts had earlier convicted the protesters of “incitement to economic discrimination” after a group of eleven protesters held a demonstration at a supermarket in the small town of Illzach in 2009.

The protesters had handed out leaflets calling for a boycott of Israeli products which French courts, including its top court, upheld as a crime and sentenced each member to pay a €1,000 fine.

Court ruling

The European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) then took the case as “Baldassi and Others v. France,” named after Jean-Michel Baldassi, the leader of the small group of protesters.

On Thursday, June 11, the EHCR unanimously found (PDF) that “incitement to differential treatment is not necessarily the same as incitement to discrimination” and that French courts had violated the protesters’ right of freedom of expression established in article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

After eleven years of ongoing court cases, the EHCR ruled that France must pay each protester €380 to compensate for loss of income due to the court cases, €7,000 for non-quantifiable damages, and €20,000 jointly to cover costs and expenses inflicted on the protesters in their eleven-year legal battle.

BDS response

Rita Ahmad of the Palestinian-led BDS movement said about the ruling: “This is a major legal blow to Israel’s apartheid regime and its anti-BDS lawfare. At Israel’s behest, European governments, especially in France and Germany, have fostered an ominous environment of bullying and repression to silence Palestine solidarity activists.”

Ahmad highlighted the link between Black Lives Matter protests in the US and the BDS movement’s anti-colonial position, saying “at a time when European citizens, inspired by the Black Lives Matter uprising in the US, are challenging the ugly legacy of European colonialism, France, Germany and other EU countries must end their racist repression of human rights defenders campaigning for Palestinian human rights and for an end to Israeli apartheid.”

Ahmad also emphasized the role of European silence on Israeli human rights and international law violations. “Europe is deeply complicit in Israel’s occupation, siege of Gaza and slow ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians.” She promised further activism in Europe, saying that “for as long as this complicity continues, BDS campaigns will too.”

Tunisian Parliament Votes Down Bill Calling for Apology from French Colonists

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The small centrist Al-Karama bloc proposed the bill and its 19 members wore shirts bearing the slogan, “Murder and torture, the brutality of French colonialism” during the 15 hour parliamentary debate. 

Only 77 of the 217 member assembly voted in favour of the legislation that demanded “compensation to the Tunisian state and to all those who suffered the pain of colonization.”  

“We are not animated by any bitterness or hatred, but such apologies will heal the wounds of the past,” said Seifeddine Makhlouf, President of the centrist Al-Karama party.  

The bill fell well short of the 109 votes required to pass. Its failure has been put down to deep divisions in the parliament, and concerns it could harm the country’s relationship with the former colonial power who remains its number one trading partner.  

“We are not going to feed Tunisians with such motions,” Osama Khelifi, from Qalb Tounes (Heart of Tunis) argued, alluding to Tunisia’s heavy economic and political reliance on France. 

Another factor in the bill’s downfall was Makhlouf’s criticism of Tunisia’s independence president Habib Bourguiba, whom he described as “the servant of France.” Bourguiba was a charismatic ‘father figure’ who led Tunisia to independence and served as the country’s first President from independence in 1957 to 1987, when he was peacefully deposed at age 84.   

“We are for the most part the children of Bourguiba, who led the liberation struggle of the country after long years of imprisonment and deportations and built modern Tunisia by generalising education and by emancipating women,” Tahya Tounes MP Mustapha Ben Ahmed said, in response to the criticism.

Global push against racism, glorifying colonialist figures

The bill comes in the wake of a global wave of anti-racism protests that have reignited conversations about France’s role in slavery and colonial past. The Republic, built on the values of egalité (equality),and fraternité(brotherhood), has witnessed large anti-racism protests and is being forced to address the reality of racism in a country that sees itself as “colour-blind.”   

“France is not blind to racism. France thinks it’s blind to racism,” University of Tours African diaspora researcher Maboula Soumahoro told France24 in February. 

“Because slavery was illegal on the mainland, people in France have the impression that this hyper-racialised history that is characteristic of the modern world only concerns the Americas, when in fact we have our own history,” Soumahoro explained.  

The French Republic’s universalist principles, in conjunction with the realities of the country’s colonial past, have created an environment where racism persists, but is downplayed by politicians and the mainstream media — which, in spite of France’s large Maghrebin and African communities, remains dominated by white voices. 

“The result of this contradiction is a form of universalism that is itself not universal, tainted by a sense of superiority and a tendency to depreciate other cultures,” according to, Carole Reynaud-Paligot historian and author of the “Racial Republic: Racial paradigm and republican ideology” 

“Racism is derived from this context of domination, a context that is still at play today, most notably in France’s relations with the so-called developing world,” Paligot told France24. 

“Racism is derived from this context of domination, a context that is still at play today, most notably in France’s relations with the so-called developing world.” 

Outside of France, statues of slave traders and colonial figures have been torn down by protestors across the globe. Statues of Christopher Columbus, who discovered the Americas, then enslaved, suppressed and massacred its native peoples, have been beheaded, set alight and destroyed in two US cities. While British demonstrators in Bristol tore down and threw the statue of British slave trader Edward Colston into the city’s harbour on Sunday.

Read also: Tourism Losses and COVID-19 Spending Stress Tunisia’s Budget

Despairing Domestic Workers Dumped at Ethiopian Consulate in Lebanon

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The number of newly unemployed Ethiopian domestic workers camped out the front of the Ethiopian Consulate in Beirut continues to grow. Authorities moved around 35 women into a Caritas shelter on June 5 after some spent up to two weeks camped on the concrete outside the consulate. 

As Lebanon’s economic crisis persists, more workers are being dumped on a daily basis by employers who can no longer afford them.  

A dejected-looking young woman named Lomi, hauling a large black suitcase, is the latest discarded Ethiopian domestic worker to join the growing ranks of mostly women calling for repatriation. The 20-year-old came to Lebanon a year ago to work and support her family, but her employer threw her out on Monday without her passport after she asked for the four months wages they owed her. 

Instead of paying up, they bundled Lomi and her big black suitcase into a cab bound for the Ethiopian Consulate, which suspended services on June 3 without explanation.

“What’s going to happen with me tomorrow or after tomorrow?” Lomi told Al Arabiya. “What can I do, where can I go? What am I going to eat and drink? Where is my money from the last four months?” the young woman asked, in tears.  

Employers unable or unwilling to pay wages have decided to leave their ex-employees in the hands of the Ethiopian Consulate instead of paying for a commercial plane ticket worth around $680 and the mandatory two-week COVID-19 quarantine hotel stay upon arrival in Ethiopia. The workers, many without passports and no longer with the legal right to reside or work in Lebanon, are now in danger of being penalized by Lebanese authorities. 

The more pressing issue for women like Lomi is their lack of shelter, money, and food. Unable to afford flights or find a new job due to the restrictions of Lebanon’s kafala (sponsorship) system, there is no clear path for these women to return home or find new jobs in Lebanon. 

“You see these ones? They brought them today with their bags,” said Hanna Tadasa, who herself has been unemployed in six months, pointing to a row of new arrivals at the Beirut consulate.  

“Madame, my dear, you have parents. [These women] also have parents in their country. Don’t bring them and throw them outside. Shame on you. We are humans,” was Tadasa’s message for other Lebanese employers thinking of dumping their staff. 

Blame game  

The Ethiopian Consulate and Department of Foreign Affairs have remained quiet on the issue and now ceased service provision, adding to the abandoned workers’ sense of uncertainty and helplessness. 

“Every day they tell us come back on Monday, and when Monday comes there’s nothing,” Tadasa explained. “I want to travel to my country and live in dignity with my family.”

The consulate’s head of communications, Befirde Dengela, broke the silence on Sunday  and decried the dumping of workers. According to Dengela, the consulate was forced to close over security concerns as some women “got rowdy” and attacked diplomats, a claim the women deny.  

“The employers are to blame. They can’t just throw them out here when they can’t afford to pay,” Dengela told African publication the Mail & Guardian on June 7. 

“We have repeatedly asked Lebanese authorities to intervene and hold these employers who abandon these women accountable. But they are slow to do so,” the senior Ethiopian diplomat added.  

The high cost of plane tickets and mandatory quarantine mean that although workers desperately want to be repatriated, it is essentially impossible. Lebanese authorities have entered into the blame game, saying they have done what they can for the workers but “the ball is in the playground of Ethiopia.” 

“Lebanon’s economy has been hit hard. We did what we could to facilitate the return of these women to Ethiopia by lifting the fines that undocumented migrants would normally be charged,” according to Khazaal. “But Ethiopia refuses to evacuate its citizens.” 

As the economic situation in Lebanon shows no signs of improvement, and Ethiopian women continue to either be dumped or flee their current employment situation, the future for them looks bleak. The Ethiopian and Lebanese authorities’ attempts to shift the blame are doing little for the women who are now homeless and hungry, far from home, and with no real hope of repatriation.

Read also: Outcry after Lebanese Facebook Group User Puts Nigerian Domestic Worker Up for Sale

 

 

Trump: States Should ‘Dominate’ Anti-Racism Protesters

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Protests against institutional racism in the United States, triggered by the death of George Floyd, are meeting state violence and media sensationalism. While US presidents commonly try to bring people together during such moments of national unrest, President Donald Trump used his May 2 speech to decry “an angry mob,” saying that the “biggest victims are peace-loving citizens in our poorest communities.”

Trump promised to “fight to protect you, I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters,” before describing the anti-racism protesters as “professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters,” and “Antifa.” The US president blamed the death of two protesters on “dangerous thugs,” a racially charged term for black men.

Distorted narratives

US media networks have been busy building the narrative that racism and police brutality are bad, but that violence during protests is even worse. Governors, mayors, and public figures have urged people to stop protesting and “allow justice to be done.” But it appears to be exactly the absence of justice in so many cases of police brutality that are spurring protesters to continue.

Anyone that watches American television is left with the impression that the country is on fire. Images of burning buildings, violence, and the few instances of looting are played over and over while the mainly peaceful protests go under-reported. US media and politicians appear to have settled on a playbook of decrying George Floyd’s death with numerous superlatives, followed by highlighting cases of violence as justification to halt peaceful demonstrations.

Prominent US figures continue to caution of white supremacists infiltrating protests to instigate violence and escalate tensions.

Fanning the flames

As per usual, Donald Trump’s reactions are less subtle than most. He called for increased state violence and for governors to “dominate” those exercising their constitutional right to freedom of speech and addressing their grievances to the government. Trump announced he is “taking immediate action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America.”

While Trump applauded the mainly-white protests against COVID-19 measures in April, the current protests will face the full mobilization of “all available federal resources, civilian and military.” Trump is now pressuring governors to deploy the National Guard, a branch of the military, against protesters in order to “dominate the streets.”

Police provoke confrontations

An increase in security forces is unlikely to deescalate protests, as police have often been the source of violence. US police forces are overwhelmingly treating protesters as “the enemy” due to years of a militarization of US law enforcement. Heavily armed police officers in riot gear have been wrongly trained to escalate situations and use violence, according to an analysis provided by The Conversation.

“There was a time when the playbook was much more straightforward. The police would meet with the organizers of the protest, and they would lay out ground rules together that would provide for an opportunity for protesters to do exactly what they have a right to do,” Ronal Serpas, a former police chief and professor of criminology told The Marshall Project.

Electoral ploy?

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called Trump’s strategy “weaponized racism” in a New York Times opinion piece on Monday as it appears Trump is pitching America’s white and Black populations against each other. The Boston Globe highlighted how Trump ignores racism and police brutality as he fuels unrest between different segments of US society.

Donald Trump appears to see the protests as an electoral winner. The unrest distracts from the 105,192 dead Americans due to COVID-19 and energizes racist elements in his base of support.

By filling his supporters’ minds with fear of racial unrest and burning businesses, he appears to want to trigger the anxiety and fear that too often drive some conservative voters.

With the current de-facto state of martial law featuring soldiers on the streets and political opponents labeled “terrorists,” Trump slowly appears more like the dictators he praises on a regular basis.

US Burns With Anti-Racism Rage One Week After George Floyd’s Murder

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George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota after a white police officer jammed a knee into his throat for seven painful minutes during an arrest for a non-violent crime on May 25. The video documenting the incident, when Floyd repeatedly told officers “I can’t breathe,” triggered a wave of outrage that has transformed into protests across the United States and in major cities around the world. 

Protestors chanting “I can’t breathe” and “George Floyd, say his name” filled the streets of Minneapolis, New York, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, and 135 other cities around the US. Protests in cities like Phoenix and Albuquerque remained peaceful, while others turned violent, resulting in vandalism, burnt-out buildings, looting, and a heavy-handed police response.

Amid the anger and violence, the message from protesters has been clear: Black lives matter, and systemic racism and injustice must end. The protestors’ messages have spilled onto social media, which has been filled with calls for white people not to be silent, to recognize their privilege, respect black culture and experiences, and move from being passively non-racist to vocally anti-racist. 

Mahira Louis, a 15-year-old protestor from Boston, summed up protestors’ sentiments.  

“They keep killing our people. I’m so sick and tired of it,” Louis told the Associated Press News (AP News).  

“I hate to see my city like this but at the end we need justice,” said Jahvon Craven, an 18-year-old protestor from Minneapolis. 

Trump retreats 

On Sunday evening, as a protest in Washington, D.C. encroached on the White House, Secret Service agents rushed President Donald Trump into a secure bunker. Trump spent nearly an hour in the bunker as protesters in adjacent Lafayette Park chanted “George Floyd” and peppered the presidential mansion with rocks as police and the National Guard held them back.  

The response from US law enforcement and government has been mixed, with some lawmakers praised for their efforts to calm tensions and others including President Donald Trump accused of inflaming them further. Trump’s advisers counseled him against giving an Oval Office address to try and quell the country’s anger, according to reports from White House insiders, but he has continued to tweet about the unfolding situation. 

Police response criticized

Dozens of cities have rolled out night-time curfews, including Minneapolis, where the National Guard and military police are enforcing restrictions. Utopian scenes played out on Sunday evening as military hummers rolled through the suburban streets of Minneapolis and military police viciously ordered citizens to get inside their houses ahead of the 8 p.m. curfew.  

A number of violent police responses to the protests sparked by the police brutality that killed George Floyd have also drawn criticism. In Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms fired two officers and placed others on desk duty for using excessive force after video emerged of officers circling a car on Saturday and stun-gunning the occupants.  

The mayor and “mother to four black children” launched a passionate plea for calm in Atlanta on Friday and has since called on Trump to “just stop talking.”  

“He speaks and he makes it worse. There are times when you should just be quiet and I wish that he would just be quiet. Or if he can’t be silent, if there is somebody of good sense and good conscience in the White House, put him in front of a teleprompter and pray he reads it and at least says the right things, because he is making it worse,” she told CNN on Sunday night.   

Pepper spray from police hit black lawmakers Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, 70, and Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin at the end of a rally in Columbus, Ohio on Saturday. “Too much force is not the answer to this,” Beatty said in a Twitter video posted after the incident.  

The police response comes as no surprise to people like the Director of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, Christ White. “What’s happening, it’s the way American society has always been,” White said.

Police have arrested over 4,100 people to date in connection with the George Floyd protests. Police have repeatedly used pepper spray, batons, tear gas, rubber bullets, and driven their vehicles at demonstrators to disperse and control crowds.  

Read also: US Meets Protests Over Police Brutality With Increasing State Violence 

 

US Meets Protests Over Police Brutality With Increasing State Violence

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Protests across the US continued on the night of Friday, May 29. Outrage over the death of George Floyd, yet another black person that died while in police custody, has sparked large protests around the country. While most media express agreement with the main complaints of the protesters, the events are nonetheless painted as violent, destructive, and chaotic.

Systemic racism and widening inequality in the United States appears to have reached a tipping point as civil disobedience and protest are the only tools left for a black community seemingly under siege. But the protests are not being treated as a legitimate form of expression and productive outrage. Instead, the media paint the events as violent disruptions of American society.

State violence

The main complaint of the protestors is the excessive violence exercised by American law enforcement on people of color. The continued disregard for and distrust of America’s black communities by those that are tasked with protecting them has created a state in which a certain section of society has to fear those that police them.

With decades of political inaction, the only recourse left for the embattled community is to take to the streets and perform that most American of all values by freely protesting the government.

State officials are not channeling the understandable outrage into productive events. Instead of granting permits to protests and creating venues for free expression, protesters have met police in riot gear, tear gas, and rubber bullets.

Over half a century since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dared to dream that one day his children might live in a nation where they would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” that dream still appears elusive.

Press attacked

Even the press covering the events have faced police repression. A camera crew in Louisville, Kentucky was pelted with pepper-infused non-lethal ammunition. As is common in US policing, the individual officer shooting at the camera crew was not corrected by his colleagues, forcing the local television staff to retreat.

In Minneapolis, state troopers arrested Omar Jimenez, a black reporter for CNN during his live broadcast after repeatedly expressing his team’s willingness to cooperate with police instructions. The governor of Minnesota has since apologized to CNN, but the event remains an example of the distrust and intimidation commonly applied by local law enforcement.

Media framing

US media have covered the protests primarily by first briefly recognizing the grievances of the crowd, before spending the rest of coverage with sensationalist footage of looting and violence.

The Washington Post spoke of “absolute chaos” in its headline, the New York Times similarly called the events a “night of chaos,” while MSNBC emphasized “clashes with police.” Governors, mayors, and state officials around the country have told protesters to “go home” as the media has effectively turned the narrative away from George Floyd’s tragic murder and onto a projecting of chaotic and unruly largely black protesters.

Fox News has been the worst offender as it has disproportionately broadcast footage of looting and violence in an apparent attempt to discredit the protests and reinforce stereotypes of the black community being disruptive and violent.

Black and white contrast

The police and media responses stand in stark contrast to the protests against COVID-19 measures over the past weeks. Heavily armed, mostly white protesters faced no police barricades, tear gas, or rubber bullets, but instead enjoyed a pleasant afternoon as they exercised their unimpeded constitutional right to free speech.

Even when protesters “stormed” the capitol building in Michigan they faced little to no resistance or police response. These protestors were able to enter the government building carrying rifles and pistols and organize rallies with not a single armed police officer in sight.

Systemic racism

The contrast between the protests could not be more clear. Unarmed black protesters with genuine grievances face tear gas and rubber bullets while heavily-armed white protesters disregarding public health advice are treated with “kid gloves.”

The COVID-19 crisis has added even more evidence of the systemic and structural racism that people of color in the United States face on a daily basis. Black Americans are arrested disproportionately, face longer prison sentences, are on average ten times poorer than white Americans, and even die in much greater numbers from COVID-19 infections.

And much more injustice is ahead. As a moratorium on evictions is set to soon expire, a “tsunami of evictions” is coming, which will, again, affect the black community to a much greater extent.

With no political recourse left, a long-unanswered question remains. Americans are left to ponder what black communities are supposed to do to achieve justice and equality in the eyes of law enforcement if merely exercising their constitutional rights to protest their government is met with state violence, media sensationalism, and continuing systemic oppression.

US authorities would be wise to heed the words of Michel Foucault, who said “justice must always question itself, just as society can exist only by means of the work it does on itself and on its institutions.”

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