You don't need to live in a Liberal European country to see what kind of deep seated racial problem the USA has. At the moment the country is on fire and it has been a long time coming. The heritage of slavery and racism is not easy to overcome, but at current times it seems as if people have failed to learn from their history. A history that tends to repeat itself. I'm old enough to remember the riots after Rodney King was killed during his arrest. Now we're 28 years later and it has become painfully apparent what has changed. Absolutely nothing.
I'm appalled by what is going on. Being Dutch, living in the Netherlands, I'm not used to this kind of behaviour. We're quite liberal over here and I don't get shocked by things easily. Having seen the video of George Floyd being killed and many videos of riots and protests that occured in response to it, I'm baffled by how policeforces respond.
Where I expect the police to try and defuse a potentially dangerous or violent situation before it escalates, it seems many policeofficers have been trained to escalate these situations to then dominate the opposing party, many times unnecessary.
To me, this seems like a cultural problem. It's not just the history of slavery and oppression of minority groups, it's also, dare I say it, the second amendment of the constitution. When you have racially biased policeofficers amongst your policeforce, that don't just believe that non-caucasian white Americans are bad people by default, but who also expect everyone to likely carry a weapon, then their fear of being assaulted is maximally fueled. They will mostlikely overreact to a situation that does not need to escalate.
The gunculture in the USA definitely is a part of the problem. But the problem runs a lot deeper. Just look at the immense difference between the rich and the poor. Affordable Education seems to difficult to obtain, affordable healthcare, social security, proper living wages. Somehow it seems to me, slavery has never ended. The rich people are still controlling the minorities by keeping them poor.
The metal shackles have been replaced with paper ones. By keeping people in debt and thus keeping the minorities poor, they are still being controlled as if they were enslaved. And the rich?Tthey appear to still see them as slaves. As utensils, as disposable objects. This then translates back to the appalling behaviour we see today.
Poverty leads to criminality, regardless of race. But when you also instil a sense in to people that poor minority groups are all criminals who are armed with guns and who are less valuable than others, then they will be met with excessive force in stressful situations. We've seen this with Rodney King and more recently we've seen this with Michael Brown, George Floyd and many others.
People know this and they depend on this. Last week a white female was walking her dog in a park and didnt keep it on a leash, as she was required to do. An African American man, a bird watcher, asked her to put the dog on a leash. The woman went off on the man, telling him to stop recording her, before she called the police telling them the man had threatened her and hers dog.
The woman knew the implication. She knew that there is a bias against African American men amongst a portion of the policeforce and I guess she was counting on the man knowing this and submitting to her demands or risk getting arrested or even getting shot by the police.
Incidents like these, quite clearly show the social and racial problems in the USA. Solving them is no easy task. Even a multi-cultural country like the Netherlands still has problems wit racism and discrimination. We had colonies in South-Africa, Asia, South- America and the Caribbean. After WW2 we invited people from countries like Turkey and Marocco to help rebuild out country and it's economy. There is discrimination there, but it has definitely not lead to such explosive situations as in the USA.
Why not? My guess... Legislature, social security and proper gun laws prevent this. The police doesnt have to fear that everyone they encounter may carry a gun, this allows them to de-escalate potential dangerous or violent situations. This reduces the risk of excessive force being used and it reduces the chance of people being killed by the police, which in turn reduces the chances of public uproar.
That however doesnt mean that it doesnt happen. In 2016, in the Netherlands, a member of a minority community was killed during his arrest. The next day there was a riot, directly linked to his death, this however did not escalate furthter. The death was investigated and of the 5 police officers involved 2 were prosecuted and 1 was convicted to a suspended jailsentence.
With culture between the Netherlands and the USA being vastly different, ofcourse people act differently to similar situations. But looking at what is happening in the USA right now, it is abundently clear that the USA has a long way to go and many problems to solve.
Not only do they need to adress the police brutality and the racism, they also need to adress the socio-economic problems in the country. Only by treating everyone equal, by providing equal opportunity and by stopping to spread fear and by stopping to create situations where people fear others, can these dreadful situations be prevented.
The USA is a powder keg and the current situation has been waiting to happen for a long time. I do get it, though. I was raised with a saying by the roman playwright Terentius Publius Afer who said "Homo sum, humani a me alienum puto", which means "I am fully human, nothing human is alien to me". All the human behaviour we see is basically normal behaviour. Some of it, however, is not desirable nor constructive.
In order to live together peacefully and prosperously, a lot of things need to change. And there is no time like the present to do so.
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