• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
Home World

Protests over George Floyd’s death expose raw race relations worldwide

3 June 2020, 5:30 PM  |
Reuters Reuters |  @SABCNews
A person carries a banner during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in front of a US consulate, in Barcelona, Spain.

A person carries a banner during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in front of a US consulate, in Barcelona, Spain.

Image: Reuters

A person carries a banner during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in front of a US consulate, in Barcelona, Spain.

Images of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of African-American George Floyd, who then died, have sparked protests from Amsterdam to Nairobi, but they also expose deeper grievances among demonstrators over strained race relations in their own countries.

With violent clashes between protesters and authorities raging in the United States, anti-police-brutality activists gathered by the thousands in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in various European and African cities.

Peaceful protesters highlighted allegations of abuse of black prisoners by their jailers, social and economic inequality, and institutional racism lingering from the colonial pasts of the Netherlands, Britain and France.

“If you want to believe that we in the Netherlands do not have a problem with race, you should go ahead and go home,” Jennifer Tosch, founder of Black Heritage Amsterdam Tours, told a crowd in Amsterdam, from where the Dutch West India Company operated ships estimated to have traded 500 000 slaves in the 1600s and 1700s.

Tosch and others drew a comparison between Floyd’s death and the treatment of slaves centuries ago. “We have seen this image before as white persecutors and enslavers held down the enslaved and branded them with an iron.”

In London, a protester held a placard reading “The UK isn’t innocent,” while in Berlin around 2,000 people protested outside the U.S. embassy and two Bundesliga soccer players wore “Justice for George Floyd” shirts on Monday.

A similar message came from Dominique Sopo, president of French NGO SOS Racisme, which organised a small protest outside the US embassy in Paris on Monday.

“This issue of police racism is also, albeit with a lower level of violence, an issue that concerns France,” he said.

Police in northern Paris fired tear gas on Tuesday to disperse demonstrators protesting over the 2016 death of a young black Frenchman in police custody – an incident that has drawn parallels with Floyd’s killing.

Adama Traore’s family have blamed excessive force used during his arrest, when the 24-year-old was pinned down by three gendarmes. Successive pathology reports have reached conflicting conclusions over whether his death two hours later resulted from asphyxiation or other factors including pre-existing conditions.

Amid a coronavirus lockdown, French activists also say there have been a number of police brutality cases in low-income neighbourhoods where many originate from Africa.

CLASHES IN TURKEY

In Istanbul, more than 50 people clashed with police officers minutes after beginning a protest over Floyd and what they called police brutality in Turkey.

At least five people were detained after scuffles with officers holding shields, after which other protesters gave speeches denouncing lethal police force and bans on demonstrations in Turkey during the pandemic.

In Nairobi, protesters at the American embassy held signs reading “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Extrajudicial Killings”.

Organiser Nafula Wafula said violence against blacks is international and cited the killing of prisoners in Kenya.

“The system that allows police brutality to happen in Kenya is based on class. In America, it’s race and class.”

Protests are planned in coming days in Gambia, Britain, Spain and Portugal.

In Spain, protesters will mark the death of Floyd and “all sisters and brothers who have died at the hands of institutional racism on our streets,” the African and Afro-descendant Community CNAAE said.

Portugal’s gathering will address “the myth that Portugal is not a racist country”.

But not all in Europe side with the protesters.

Spain’s far-right Vox party and the Netherlands’ anti-Islam Freedom Party called those protesting Floyd’s death “terrorists” and backed US President Donald Trump.

“Our support for Trump and the Americans who are seeing their Nation attacked by street terrorists backed by progressive millionaires,” Vox wrote in a Tweet.

In the Netherlands, the Freedom Party’s Geert Wilders tweeted: “White House under attack. This is no protest but anarchy by #AntifaTerrorists.”

Even amid such racial division, Linda Nooitmeer, who heads the National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy, drew hope from Monday’s protest in Amsterdam.

“We don’t have the history of the civil rights movement in Holland, so what occurred yesterday was really something new. It is the start of real dialogue.”

Share article
Tags: Black Lives MatterGeorge Floyd
Previous Post

French court orders Rwanda genocide suspect be tried at UN tribunal

Next Post

Zondo Commission to resume hearings at end of June

Related Posts

Advocate Mojankunyane Gumbi  is currently the Chancellor of the University of Venda

UN appoints Mojankunyane Gumbi a Special Adviser for Addressing Racism in Workplace

26 January 2023, 10:16 PM
Missiles traces are seen in a sky, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Donbas region, Ukraine January 25, 2023. REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak

Russia unleashes missiles at Ukraine after Kyiv secures tanks

26 January 2023, 5:35 PM
[file photo] A man stands outside of his tent during a period of cold weather

More than 160 Afghans die in bitterly cold weather

26 January 2023, 3:16 PM
[File Image]; Migrants stand onboard a fishing boat at the port of Paleochora, following a rescue operation off the island of Crete, Greece, November 22, 2022.

EU wants to send more people back to Africa, Middle East, Asia

26 January 2023, 12:47 PM
US Army M1A1 Abrams tanks attend NATO enhanced Forward Presence battle group military exercise Crystal Arrow 2021 in Adazi, Latvia, March 26, 2021.

US-supplied tanks will ‘burn’ in Ukraine: Kremlin

26 January 2023, 6:50 AM
A vulture sits on a tree as the sun rises at the iconic Kruger National Park, in Skukuza, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, February 10, 2022

US, SA agree to ‘follow the money’ in wildlife trafficking: Yellen

25 January 2023, 6:14 PM
Next Post
Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has briefed the media about the commission's work.

Zondo Commission to resume hearings at end of June

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • Parts of the Northern Cape to be exempted from rolling blackouts
  • Limpopo matriculant from child-headed household attains diploma pass
  • Remedial programme reinstated to fight Hyacinth plants at Hartbeespoort Dam
  • Northern Cape’s Kakamas to be exempted from blackouts
  • Zuma joins AmaZulu King in commemorating the Battle of Isandlwana
  • Parts of the Northern Cape to be exempted from rolling blackouts
  • VIDEO | St Benedict College’s Matric learner gets 11 distinctions
  • Limpopo matriculant from child-headed household attains diploma pass
  • Female circumcision practice thriving in Eastern Cape
  • Babes Wodumo breaks her silence at Mampintsha’s funeral
  • VIDEO | Repo rate increases by 25 basis points to 7.25%
  • Joburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse voted out of office
  • Phalatse refuses to comment on DA’s sabotage allegations
  • Silent revolution in SA’s education sector: Ramaphosa
  • We’re on the verge of finding tangible solutions to energy crisis: ANC

LATEST

Advocate Mojankunyane Gumbi  is currently the Chancellor of the University of Venda
  • World

UN appoints Mojankunyane Gumbi a Special Adviser for Addressing Racism in Workplace


A 3D printed Google logo is placed on the Apple Macbook in this illustration taken April 12, 2020.
  • Business

US lawsuit against Google could benefit Apple and others


City of Johannesburg Council meeting
  • Politics

Joburg Council to elect new mayor on Friday


The commission alleges that Medmart Health and BabyBug, both companies which sell personal protective equipment (PPE), colluded to fix prices on face masks and divided the market by allocating customers in contravention of the Competition Act.
  • Business

Two competing companies referred to Competition Tribunal for price fixing, collusion


The CSIR works with government and industry to improve cybersecurity in the country
  • Sci-tech

Cyber fraud remains biggest barrier to online shopping


City of Tswane
  • Business

AG’s report points to billions of irregular expenditure in City of Tshwane


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2022

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2022

Previous French court orders Rwanda genocide suspect be tried at UN tribunal
Next Zondo Commission to resume hearings at end of June