Canadians watched in horror as protests erupted across America and the world in response to the police killing of George Floyd.
George Perry Floyd, an African-American, was slain by white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds on May 25.
Some of the protesters responded violently by ransacking shops and demolishing property, as President Trump issued angry tweets from the safety of his bunker.
Trump pinned much of the blame for the riots on leftist extremists, with the president’s sights aimed directly at Antifa.
Antifa is a militant, antifascist movement comprised of autonomous cells, who are endeavouring to accomplish political aims through direct action as opposed to policy reform.
Although Antifa might’ve been present at some of the marches, the protests were largely collective responses to America’s systemic racism – also an ongoing issue in several countries, including Canada.
Yet, the racial divide south of the border is noticeable, especially whenever travelling through American cities.
I’ve often witnessed America’s racial partitions on ventures through America from the east coast to the west coast – from Syracuse to Seattle.
White Americans live in safe, beautifully-kept suburbs with flowered gardens and treed streets. African-Americans and other minorities exist in a different kind of America of inner-city slums, where drug dealers and prostitutes roam haggard avenues packed with pawn shops, convenience outlets and liquor stores.
American philosopher and civil rights activist, Cornel West, described a country in chaos with a lack of acceptable infrastructure, direction and equality in a piece written for the Guardian.
“Any society that refuses to eliminate or attenuate dilapidated housing, decrepit school systems, mass incarceration, massive unemployment and underemployment, inadequate health care and its violations of rights and liberties is undesirable and unsustainable,” the academic concluded.
But during a pandemic, when social distancing and self-isolation had been employed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the protests and accompanied riots were unwelcomed and will assist in multiplying the effects of the deadly virus roving across oceans, borders and regions. Moreover, the violence and looting activities complementing the protests were undesirable commemorations in George Floyd’s memory.
When Terrence Floyd arrived at the site of his brother’s death, where residents in Minneapolis created a mural to honour Floyd’s memory, he spoke against the destructive activities taking place throughout urban America.
“That’s not going to bring my brother back at all,” Terrence Floyd said. “My family is a peaceful family; my family is God-fearing.”
Aside from the terrible race war, its astonishing to note how many rioters ignored the new reality of COVID-19. The riots and protests were especially foolhardy during a viral pandemic.
Along with law officials, numerous protesters, especially those of the peaceful variety, wore masks and practised social distancing as they marched along America’s warring streets, but several others willfully ignored the deadly spread of COVID-19, notably the hoodlums who were busting shop windows to steal televisions and sports clothing.
In the interim, Trump sat in his bunker and tweeted about deploying the military in reaction to the riots then remerged on June 1 for a teargassing photo op with a Bible held high at St John’s Episcopal Church near the White House.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases in the United States will certainly multiply after the protests, just shortly after the looting had dissipated from the country’s urban centres.
