White Americans in force in anti-racism protests

• June, 8 2020 à 15:18
• Jean-Claude Dorsainvil
• Politique
• 0 Comments

For many, it is "the first time" that they demonstrate for #BlackLivesMatter: White Americans participate in large numbers in the rallies triggered by the death of George Floyd, with the growing awareness that discrimination against the black minority far exceeds violence police.
It is this word, "Complicity", that she chose for her sign made for this event. He often returns to the posters of white demonstrators, as does the denunciation of a "white silence".
Tatjana Gall, graphic designer, demonstrated for the first time last Sunday. "I was devastated" by the video of George Floyd being suffocated on May 25 by a white policeman, ignoring passers-by who ordered him to stop leaning his knee on his neck, she said. "The minimum I could do was demonstrate in support of the movement."
- Demonstrate all summer
"I have already protested for a lot of things, but this is my first time for #BlackLivesMatter," said Marianne Macrae, 58, older than most of the protesters. "It wasn't that it didn't interest me. But it was not the right place, the right time, "she said.
Now, this woman, who works for an NGO that fights poverty, calls for an awareness of her white compatriots. And says he is ready to demonstrate "all summer, until the fall, until the presidential election" in November.
For the youngest, very numerous at the demonstrations, mobilizing was often obvious.
"I grew up in Houston (Texas) and New Orleans, two cities with large black populations," said Ross, a 25-year-old musician who often saw his black friends tremble when he saw the police. "These people are our friends, our neighbors, they work with us, they work for us."
A recent survey by Monmouth University attests to a growing empathy of the white population for the risks run by blacks towards the police: some 49% of whites - and 57% of Americans in general - now estimate that a police officer is more at risk to abuse his strength in front of a black suspect, twice as much as in 2016 (25%), according to this study.
And 78% of Americans consider the anger triggered by the death of George Floyd "completely" or "partially justified".
Boston: Protesters rally against racism in front of city hall "This is the first time I have participated in these demonstrations", said AFP Krista Knight, 36, playwright, during a demonstration this week weekend in Manhattan. "Not participating was like sending the message that I don't care. To be silent suggests complicity. So I felt I had to go out, "she adds.
- "A system designed for us" -
This sensitivity to discrimination against racism also sometimes goes through social networks.
Meredith Parets, a teacher in Phoenix, Arizona, joined a protest over the weekend. She has also joined two groups on Facebook - including the local branch of the group “White people for black lives” (“White people for black lives”) which counts some 900 people - which aim to help white people detect and combat insidious forms of racism.
Before, "white supremacists, I thought it was the KuKluxKlan (...), that you could choose not to be part of it," said the 47-year-old woman. Now, "I realize that (...) the whole system is designed for us".
She, who was not an activist, now writes to her elected officials, asking to vote for funding for a police oversight body, or to ban strangulation techniques used against suspects.
For Candace McCoy, a specialist in racial demonstrations at the University of the City of New York (CUNY), this white mobilization is "one of the big differences with the demonstrations of the last 30 years", like those triggered by police violence by Ferguson in 2014 or the Rodney King case in 1992.
She compares this mobilization to the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s, in particular the "March on Washington" of August 28, 1963, where many white people marched with Martin Luther King.