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The public murder of George Floyd

  • 28 May 2020
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The four policemen who arrested Georges Floyd, mistreated him and then choked him to death were fired but not arrested. Despite the obvious images of both the arrest and his outrageous treatment on the ground, President Trump and the FBI say that it is necessary to "investigate, check, shed some light" ... So, when it is about a "Black man", we stop, we imprison and we end up with no liberation ; yet when it is about a "White man", we investigate, we sway, and most of the time we end up with no prison. The truth is that this is not a simple "police blunder" but rather a deeply "racialized" and intrinsically discriminatory social system.

Famous basketball player LeBron James posted an illustration summarizing the substance of the legitimate and necessary Black struggle and resistance in the United States. Colin Kaepernick's knee to the ground when the American anthem is intoned in order to make clear his dignified and powerful refusal of the shameful knee of the White police killing with impunity a Black whose life "does not matter". James aptly adds: "Do you understand now?"

In Europe, and in France, we would be well inspired to refrain from making fun of the American system. Americanization is well under its way, and from the two ends: the violence of the cities is being armed and is intensifying day after day, while the violence and the repeated "police blunders" reveal that discrimination has become systemic. It is the racialized and racist social order that we must denounce today and not only "the isolated blunders" that hide the system that produces them.

 

Tariq ramadan


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The public murder of George Floyd

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