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The Guardian historian Olivette Otele writes that police killings of African Americans and subsequent protests have shown how most former colonial forces are avoiding sincere recognition of the effects of the past.
“It is a legacy that has shaped societies in the most dramatic way, leaving black and brown people at the bottom of the social ladder. These are the many forms of racism that have led to discriminatory practices. They prevented large sectors of society gain access to a sufficiently paid job or the opportunity to benefit from social mobility, ”writes O. Otele.
VIDEO: Participants of the march against racism in Vilnius: we also have problems in Lithuania
European racism is more complex
Freelance Italian journalist currently writing a book on racism, Nadeesha Uyangoda 15 minutes He said he was particularly surprised that mass protests had also taken place in Italy, where many people took to the streets as soon as the quarantine measures were relaxed.
According to N. Uyangoda, social media can be thanked for the protests. A lengthy video of Floyd’s murder “forced him out of his comfort zone and protested against someone else.” Such powerful images are said to have sparked human compassion and sensitivity.
Zumapress / Scanpix Photo / Protest against racism in Italy
Uyangoda said he disagreed with the statement heard in the Italian media that racism in the United States is more complicated than in his country.
“Racism in the United States is systemic., derived from segregation, is something that takes place within the borders of the United States. European racism is what Europeans have practiced outside of Europe, and it has made racism even more, something we can distance ourselves from.
As if racism was not European because it has never happened in Europe. This alienation of the subject has led us to believe that Europeans cannot be racist. And this has distorted the history of colonialism regarding the treatment of non-Caucasians. ” 15 minutes said the author.
He noted that the precursor to segregation considers himself a British businessman, the politician Cecilis John Rhodes, who paved the way for apartheid in what is now Zimbabwe.
According to Uyangoda, immigration has become more visible in Europe in the past five years, including in Italy.
Photo by Scanpix / Demonstration against the exploitation of immigrants in Italy
“Whites in Europe feel that they are becoming a minority, although that is not true. This has also sparked hostility between non-whites and migrants,” he said.
Uyangoda said he saw some hypocriticalism in statements by European leaders condemning Flloyd’s murder.
“It is easier to condemn what is not happening in Europe, which is a distant problem for Europeans that does not affect them.” But racism and police brutality exist in the UK and in other parts of Europe, “he said.
In Germany, discrimination has increased
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned Flloyd’s murder and said “racism is a terrible thing” and called American society highly polarized.
Deutsche Welle journalist Chiponda Chimbelu writes that it is easy for Europeans to see the incidents in the United States and say that this is not happening here, but that “black Europeans do not have that luxury.”
Scanpix / AP Photo / Angela Merkel
“For them, racism is very much alive in Europe, even though police violence does not seem so uncontrollable in the news.” “The reason George Floyd’s murder sparked protests outside the United States: The events here opened up old wounds,” writes DW Chimbel.
According to the journalist, Western societies’ understanding of what it means to be black is not significantly different. “His ideas are largely dominated by various historical events: slavery and colonialism,” he writes.
Scanpix / SIPA photo / Protest in Berlin
On Tuesday, the German Federal Agency against Discrimination announced that it received 10 percent last year. More complaints. In total, this number amounts to 1,176, with 545 complaints registered in 2015. Last year, the country was surprised by a terrorist attack on a synagogue in Halle, where two people died.
The agency report says that in 2019, one in three people with immigrant roots who have been searching for housing in the past 10 years said they experienced discrimination. 41 percent. Respondents said they had serious or very serious questions about renting an apartment to immigrants.
In 2015, Germany welcomed more than a million asylum seekers, followed by far-right extremists who spoke out vigorously against immigrants.
Bernhard Franke, head of Germany’s federal anti-discrimination agency, said at a press conference that the country’s police “is not as free from discrimination as some would like to see.”
VIDEO: George Floyd was accompanied on the eternal journey: the crowds covered the earth with flowers
The imperialist past is part of the identity.
Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester and journalist Gary Younge. nybooks.com he writes that the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville was right in saying that “no African has ever reached the shores of the New World in freedom.”
However, he did not emphasize that the Old World first transported those Africans there. Europe has as much racism in its history as the United States: its stories are intertwined.
The biggest difference between Europe and the United States in this regard is that Europe has practiced the worst forms of anti-black racism (slavery, colonialism, segregation) outside of it. America has internalized those things, “Younge writes.
Protests in the UK touched other sensitive chains. In Bristol, protesters downed and dumped a monument to Edward Colston, a slave merchant, who sentenced tens of thousands to death. The statue of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill was also dishonored in London: he was declared a racist.
VIDEO: Protesters looted a controversial 125-year-old monument and drowned in a river.
Protesters in London cited the Washington Post as a troubling statistic showing that minorities were disproportionately affected by coronavir. Government figures released last month show that black Britons are four times more likely to die from COVID-19 than whites.
ALSO READ: Racism in the USA USA He was exposed not only for the murder of George Floyd, but also for COVID-19
University of Liverpool historian Deana Heath told The Wall Street Journal that schools in the UK do not teach in detail about the colonial past, but it remains the basis of identity. According to her, the United Kingdom has always refused to acknowledge the problems associated with the imperialist past because it would be a traumatic experience.
“Without an empire, there is no British identity,” he said.
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