- The death of George Floyd following police brutality set fire to Minneapolis and other American cities.
- Explosive riots which worry, some do not hesitate to evoke the risks of a civil war.
- For Jean-Eric Branaa, lecturer on the United States, the war will be political much more than civil.
Since the death of George Floyd, an African-American whose neck was crushed by the knee of a police officer until suffocation, Minneapolis, city of the incident, has been ablaze, with several nights of riots and fires . The flames of anger are now lighting even in other American cities, such as Denver, Chicago or Memphis.
For Jean-Eric Branaa, lecturer and political scientist of the United States, riots can continue to spread across the country, and even have an impact on the American presidential election.
How to explain such a prominence of the question of racism in the United States?
There are actually many explanations. The United States has a paranoid population, always living in fear and which seeks a maximum to protect itself from everything and especially from the other. This immense fear also led to the vote by referendum of the mind-boggling police protection laws, which reinforces the feeling of impunity and further ignites the powder.
Beyond the historical roots of a racial America, there is a fear which gains the white populations seeing their privileges being cut and their powers diminished. From 80% of the American population a few decades ago, the white populations represent only 50% of the American demography, and will soon be in the minority. It is no coincidence that the election of Donald Trump was perceived as "the revenge of whites", and the president is doing everything to stir up this fear and blow on the embers.
Nor is the balance sheet negative. It would be wrong to say that things have not changed in half a century. Huge developments have taken place on the racial issue in the United States. And if racist police violence is a reality in the country, all the police are fortunately not like that. Chattanooga, Tennessee police chief David Roddy said that "the police, seeing no problem in the arrest of George Floyd, could return their badges."
Donald Trump has decided to send National Guard soldiers there. Can these riots go as far as a kind of civil war?
Riots may spread all over the United States, the history of the country shows the capacity they have to spread in many cities, as in the 1960s for example. On the other hand, it would be an exaggeration to speak of a risk of civil war. Anger is present, the gap between two Americas has never seemed so large in decades, but not to the point of triggering a direct intranational confrontation.
In fact, riots are already appearing in many other cities, some in relation to cases of local racism which had not caused a violent stir until then. The death of George Floyd may be the spark of an already pervasive anger. Especially since the coronavirus has only increased poverty, precariousness but also mortality among African-Americans in the United States. We have seen that it was the population most affected, both healthically and socially, by the disease.
Will the battle be played in the ballot boxes?
It is certain that the event will be at the heart of the campaign, some 150 days before the presidential election. The two declared candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, have radically opposite postures. Joe Biden talks about a systemic racism of the police and a better consideration of minorities in the America of the future, knowing that the minorities are the majority of tomorrow. Donald Trump denounces him "disorders being the work of thugs" and that must be repressed.
However, we must also put into perspective the importance that this will have. The whole strategy of Donald Trump certainly consists in constantly increasing the cleavage and in spreading the two sides between Republicans and Democrats as much as possible to ensure the vote of the Republicans and having only to draw from the undecided. But Joe Biden wanted him to have the most reassuring profile possible: by his calm, his international stature, his age too, he can seek the independents on other issues than racial. This is the strength of her candidacy, and the reason she worries Donald Trump so much.
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