"Racism has always been there in the United States and it will always be"
The North American nation suffers a triple crisis (social, economic and health) that has been analyzed this Monday in the fifth program of Atalayar on Capital Radio
On March 21, 1960, the police opened fire and killed 69 people in a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid pass law in Sharpeville, South Africa. Sixty years later, the African American George Floyd has been suffocated by a white policeman. The video of his arrest has led to the worst riots in decades, to such an extent that some analysts have described them as the "worst race riots since the 1960 assassination 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 ability to contribute constructively to the development and well-being of society. However, in the XXI century there are thousands and thousands of people who every day fight 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 facing US President Donald Trump, a situation that could affect his aspirations to be reelected in the presidential elections of next November 3.
A poll conducted by the Washington Post and ABC television reports that the Democratic presidential candidate, Joseph Biden, leads in voting intentions against the current president. According to this poll, at this time, nationally registered voters have supported Biden with 53%, compared to 43% for Trump. "Perhaps in other circumstances or at another time, this situation could make the president more popular, but we must not forget that we are in an electoral year," warned the professor of North American Studies at the University of Alcalá and researcher at the Franklin José Antonio Institute. Gurpegui on the Atalayar radio program that is broadcast every Monday on Capital Radio. "At this time and a few months before the presidential elections are held, everything has to be seen or understood in an electoral key," he stressed. "In any case, there is a long time until November and in politics nothing can be considered lost too far in advance," replied the director of Atalayar, Javier Fernández Arribas, during this same interview.
The triple crisis suffered by the US
The United States is currently being the victim of a triple crisis (social, economic and health). The North American giant has surpassed 1.8 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, of which more than 105,000 have lost their lives. New York State continues to be one of the focuses of this pandemic; a health crisis that has led thousands upon thousands of Americans to lose their jobs. According to official figures, the unemployment rate in the United States went from 4.6% of the labor force in March to 14.7% in April. This situation and the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white policeman in Minneapolis has created the perfect setting for protests.
In this context, Trump's latest move this Monday has been to threaten to deploy the Army if the states do not mobilize the National Guard to end the protests. It was not the first time that Trump had made this suggestion. The previous Friday, the US president suggested military intervention to deter protesters who have taken to the streets to protest the death of African American George Floyd. “These BULLIES are dishonoring George Floyd's memory, and I will not allow that to happen. I just spoke with Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Army is at his complete disposal. Any difficulties and we will take over. When the looting begins, the shooting begins, ”Trump warned. And he continued this dialectic on Sunday by assuring that Democrats are not tough enough on protesters who use violence as a flag. "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 Antifa movement. as a terrorist organization.
The North American analyst in International Relations Alana Moceri -who has also been present in the Atalayar program on Capital Radio this Monday- has stressed that the Antifa movement "is not an organized group, but rather a network of activists, that is to say , that they are not violent ”. “The looting of buildings and companies is caused by criminals who try to take advantage of the situation. Beyond that, people are demonstrating peacefully, ”she explained. The current situation of chaos and instability that is being experienced in some of the main cities of the US has led many cities to begin to apply curfews or to mobilize the National Guard.
After Floyd's death, demonstrations have gradually appeared across the country, protests that, while initially 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 the Americans are seeing continuous looting of burning shops or private properties forces them to react, ”Gurpegui warned. "I particularly think that Donald Trump does not dislike these events happening because he is going to come out as the great winner against anyone who has the slightest suspicion of being on the left," she added.
"Racism has always been there and always will be"
The former US-based journalist, Begoña Sevilla, stated during the Atalayar Radio program broadcast this Monday that “racism in the US is something that has always been there and will always be. 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 that occurs when a person or group of people feels hatred towards others for having different characteristics or qualities, such as skin color, language or place of birth”, a discrimination that has been manifested during the last days with the death of Floyd. In addition, according to Seville, fear is breathed 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 tip of the iceberg”. That is why he has called for an analysis of the differences in per capita income, the number of graduates from universities or the unemployment rates that exist among African Americans, Hispanics and whites. “These deaths occur on a recurring basis every several years. What is happening now is that they have been joined by a series of important factors, such as the fact that there are unemployment rates in the US of around 14.7 percent ”, she stressed. In this context, the professor of North American Studies at the University of Alcalá has agreed with Alana that the violent attacks have not been carried out by the Antifa movement, but have been perpetrated by criminals who seek to take advantage of the situation.
Atalayar's collaborator, Pedro González, has assured that "racism is latent in society." “It is evident that there are certain minorities that have a social consideration or a social status much lower than that of the so-called 'whites' and that motivates an inequality that is the one that ignites the spark as soon as there is an individual performance that ignites that fire that later it overflows ”, he explained in the Atalayar program on Capital Radio. Regarding the increase in violence, González also believes that "there are many criminals or organized gangs who try to take advantage of the current situation politically." “It is a somewhat unfair view to think that all of American society is itself racist and that all of society is unequal. The generality is a lie ”, he concluded.
Floyd's death was a homicide
Both the independent and the official autopsy carried out on the African American George Floyd have reached the same conclusion and that is that his death at the hands of a policeman 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 suffocation, the county coroner establishes that it was due to a "cardiorespiratory arrest" while they were immobilizing him, according to information published this Tuesday by the EFE news agency.
The president of the United States announced this Monday the deployment of thousands of soldiers and law enforcement officers to end the protests that have spread throughout the US, and have even reached London or Germany. "I am mobilizing all available federal, civil and military resources to stop rioting and looting to end destruction and arson and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans," he announced in a speech at the House. White.
