"Racism has always been there in America and it always will be"
On March 21, 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people in a peaceful demonstration against an apartheid ticket law in Sharpeville, South Africa. Sixty years later, African-American George Floyd has died of asphyxiation by a white policeman. The video of his arrest has led to the worst riots in recent decades, so much so that some analysts have described them as the "worst race riots since the assassination in 1960 of Martin Luther King". The United Nations General Assembly reiterates that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and have the capacity to contribute constructively to the development and well-being of society. However, in the 21st century, thousands and thousands of people struggle every day to end racial discrimination. The street violence that has overshadowed the peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd has added to the long list of challenges that US President Donald Trump has to face, a situation that could affect his aspirations to be re-elected in the presidential elections on November 3.
A poll conducted by the Washington Post and ABC television reports that the Democratic candidate for president, Joseph Biden, is leading the way in terms of voting intentions with respect to the current president. According to this poll, at this time, registered voters nationwide have given their support to Biden with 53%, compared to 43% for Trump. "Perhaps in other circumstances or at another time, this situation could give the president more popularity, but we should not forget that we are in an election year," warned Professor of American Studies at the University of Alcalá and Franklin Institute researcher José Antonio Gurpegui on the Atalayar radio program broadcast every Monday on Capital Radio. "At this time and a few months before the presidential elections, everything has to be seen or understood in electoral terms," he stressed. "In any case, there is still a long way to go until November and in politics nothing can be given up too early," responded Atalayar director Javier Fernández Arribas during this same interview.
The United States is currently experiencing a triple crisis (social, economic and healthcare). This Monday, the American giant has surpassed the 1.8 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, of which more than 105,000 have lost their lives. The state of New York continues to be one of the focal points of this pandemic; a health crisis that has led thousands and thousands of Americans to lose their jobs. According to official figures, the unemployment rate in the United States rose from 4.6% of the workforce in March to 14.7% in April. This situation and the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white policeman in Minneapolis have created the perfect scenario for the emergence of protests.
In this context, Trump's latest move has been to threaten to deploy the Army on Monday if the states do not mobilize the National Guard to end the protests. It was not the first time that Trump made this suggestion. The previous Friday, the president of the United States suggested military intervention to dissuade protesters who have taken to the streets to protest the death of African-American George Floyd. "These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I will not allow that to happen. I have just spoken to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Army is at his beck and call. Any difficulties and we will take control. When the looting starts, the shooting starts," Trump warned. And he continued this dialectic on Sunday by asserting that Democrats are not tough enough on protesters who use violence as a banner. "Liberal governors and mayors must be tougher or the government will step in and do what it has to do, and that includes using the unlimited power of our military," Trump said several hours before announcing on Twitter that his administration would designate the Anti-Faith movement a terrorist organization.
The US analyst in international relations Alana Moceri -who has also been present in the program of Atalayar in Capital Radio this Monday- has stressed that the Antifa movement "is not an organized group, but a network of activists, that is, who are not violent". "The looting of buildings and businesses is caused by criminals who try to take advantage of the situation. Beyond that, people are demonstrating peacefully," she said. The current situation of chaos and instability in some of the major cities of the United States has led many cities to start applying curfews or mobilizing the National Guard.
After Floyd's death, demonstrations have gradually appeared throughout the country, protests which, although at first were peaceful, have gradually turned into violence and looting. "In the United States we have to think that private property is as important as life itself. The fact that Americans are seeing continuous looting of shops or burning private property forces them to react," Gurpegui warned. "I particularly think that Donald Trump does not dislike the fact that these events are taking place because he is going to emerge as the great victor against anyone who has the slightest suspicion of being leftist," he added.
The experienced journalist living in the United States, Begoña Sevilla, said during the program of Atalayar Radio broadcast on Monday that "racism in the U.S. is something that has always been there and will always be there. The Administration and education have to work very hard to eradicate it. You have to live it to understand it". The UN defines racism as "that discrimination which occurs when a person or group of people feel hatred towards others because they have different characteristics or qualities, such as the colour of their skin, language or place of birth", a discrimination that has been evident during the last days with Floyd's death. Furthermore, according to Sevilla, there is fear in the streets of the country because "in addition to the pandemic, there is an economic crisis caused by the increase in unemployment".
Floyd's death is for Gurpegui "the peak of the iceberg" and he has called for an analysis of the differences in per capita income, college graduates or unemployment rates among Afro Americans, Hispanics and whites. "These deaths occur recurrently every few years. What is happening now is that a series of important factors have been added to them, such as the fact that there are unemployment rates in the United States of around 14.7 percent," he said. In this context, the professor of North American Studies at the University of Alcalá agreed with Alana that the violent attacks have not been carried out by the Anti-Fa movement, but rather by criminals who seek to take advantage of the situation.
Atalayar collaborator Pedro Gonzalez said that "racism is latent in society". "It is evident that there are certain minorities that have a social consideration or a social status that is much lower than that of the so-called 'whites' and that motivates an inequality that is what ignites the spark as soon as there is an individual performance that sets that fire that later overflows," he explained in Atalayar's program in Capital Radio. As for the increase in violence, González also believes that "there are many criminals or organized gangs that are trying to take political advantage of the current situation. "It's a little unfair to think that all of American society is in itself racist and that all of society is unequal. The generality is a falsehood," he concluded.
Both the independent and official autopsy of African-American George Floyd have come to the same conclusion, and that is that his death at the hands of a police officer a week ago was a homicide. The difference between one test and another is that while the autopsy contracted by the family points to a death by asphyxiation, the county coroner's report establishes that it was by "cardiac arrest" while he was being immobilized, according to information published Tuesday by EFE news agency.
The president of the United States announced on Monday the deployment of thousands of soldiers and law enforcement officers to put an end to the protests that have spread throughout the United States, and have even reached London and Germany. "I am mobilizing all available federal, civilian and military resources to stop the riots and looting, to stop the destruction and arson, and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans," he announced in a speech at the White House.
