Omar Wasow teaches political science at Princeton University. - O.WASOW

  • Every Friday, 20 Minutes  offers a personality to comment on a social phenomenon, in their "20 Minutes with ..." meeting.
  • After the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, "a fundamental change is taking place before our eyes," said American researcher Omar Wasow.
  • The reason, according to this racial specialist? "Mobilization of minorities, youth and the white majority".

"No justice, no peace. Since George Floyd died of suffocation under the knee of a white police officer in late May in Minneapolis, hundreds of thousands of Americans have been on the streets every day demanding change.

Princeton political scientist and researcher and racialist, Omar Wasow, who co-founded the BlackPlanet social network in 2001, believes "that a fundamental change is taking place before our eyes, with the mobilization of minorities, youth and of part of the white population ”.

Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner… The deaths of many African-Americans over the past ten years have aroused national indignation in the United States, but not on this scale. What changed ?

The main difference is that the audience saw this video of George Floyd being killed in a brutal and shocking manner. Being faced with a nonviolent man who pleads for his life, who calls his mother for help while he is dying asphyxiated, is a visceral experience of rare power. Especially for white people who have never dealt with the indiscriminate force that the police use against African Americans.

George Floyd died of asphyxiation by a police officer, May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis - CHRISTINE T. NGUYEN / AP / SIPA

This officer who presses his knee on George Floyd's neck for almost eight minutes represents the excesses of police violence and more widely symbolizes the racial injustice of American society. This time, almost no one is defending the policeman. His action has been criticized by law enforcement officials, by commentators on Fox News. It is unprecedented.

Demonstration in Los Angeles on June 3, 2020. - USA Today / Sipa

How did we get here ?

In the space of three months, we had the coronavirus crisis, which particularly affects the African-American community, Ahmaud Arbery, who was hunted down and killed like an animal while he was jogging in Georgia, Breonna Taylor , shot dead at home by police in Kentucky ... All of these stories of black people being attacked one after the other have had a cumulative effect on America's psyche. The video of George Floyd's death was the spark that set the powder on fire.

What role do movements like Black Lives Matter play in mobilization?

In the past decade, racial inequality has become a growing concern, especially among white liberals (the left) and young people. This is partly due to the action of groups like Black Lives Matter, who have shone the spotlight on inequality and have paved the way for the mobilization we see today against systemic racism.

Vigil in Santa Ana, California, May 30, 2020. - Gina Ferazzi / REX / SIPA

This racism has been an integral part of American society for centuries. But the difference is that white Americans are taking to the streets today and saying, "We can't take it anymore."

Some compare the scale of the demonstrations to those of 1968. Is this justified?

Yes. In recent years, there have been many Black Lives Matter events, including in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Today we are faced with a mass movement, throughout the country. It is the strongest mobilization against racial injustices since the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. But while at the time, they had gained momentum over several months, they take place here simultaneously in space of a few days. Smartphones and social networks that document police drifts make it possible to mobilize in real time.

On the lootings and riots of the first days, Trump accuses the antifa, but we also saw white supremacists incite violence on Twitter…

The situation is confused. It is much more difficult to have a traditional organization and to control spontaneous and sporadic movements when anyone can join a gathering through the Internet. We saw images of young white demonstrators breaking windows, but also African-Americans and Latinos participating in the looting. We do not know if there are young anarchists in the processions, and if they believe they are defending the cause of the demonstrators or are trying to add fuel to the fire.

A restaurant in flames in Minneapolis on May 29, 2020. - John Minchillo / AP / SIPA

This is going to be one of the most important questions for the rest of the movement. If the protests are generally peaceful, like Tuesday and Wednesday, but the police are violent, this will reinforce the message to the hearts of their demands. Police attacked and arrested journalists this week. These are shocking images in a democracy.

Historically, has violence served protesters for the advancement of civil rights?

The protests have a major impact on public opinion when they get the attention of the media. The analysis of 275,000 a of newspapers (between 1960 and 1972) shows that when the movements are peaceful, the press is compassionate, with titles on civil rights, whose popularity increases in opinion. But in the event of overflows, the newspapers put forward the riots and the public worries about the crime and the violence.

Is Donald Trump poisoning the situation by promising law and order and calling on governors to "dominate" the violent protesters?

Mobilizing the National Guard has already been done, and we saw tanks in Los Angeles in 1965 (during the Watts riots). But Trump seems to be pushing the envelope of his rhetoric by threatening to use the insurgency laws, deploy soldiers on active duty, and reclassify domestic groups as an anti-fa into a terrorist organization. In practice, he often plays war-mongers but rarely takes action [the Pentagon backed down on the deployment of troops in Washington after this interview].

Protesters were brutally chased before Donald Trump went to St. John's Church in Washington, June 2, 2020. - Patrick Semansky / AP / SIPA

On the other hand, he called the death of George Floyd a "tragedy" and promised that justice would be done. Can he play on both counts?

The video is so strong that even Donald Trump feels compelled to express compassion for George Floyd. But his liabilities are too heavy for his voice to carry. For years, speech after speech, action after action, he has played on divisions and fear of the other. With birtherism [the conspiracy theory claiming that Obama was not born in the United States], he implied: "This black president is illegitimate and represents a threat to our political order". From the "Mexican rapists" in Charlottesville to the Muslim ban , he said to his base: "I will protect you from these dangers which threaten white and Christian America". It is the pillar of his electoral promise.

It takes up Richard Nixon's doctrine on law and order and on the silent majority. It had worked in 2016, but can he play this card in November when he is the outgoing?

A fundamental difference between the demonstrations of 1968 and those of today is that they were much more violent at the time. There were hundreds of buildings on fire. In polls, 80% of Americans believed that law and order were in ruins and felt that society was nearing implosion. Nixon took advantage of it. We are very far today, with much stronger support from the population (two thirds of Americans support the demonstrators, according to an Ipsos poll). If the movement continues to remain relatively peaceful, it will not play in Trump's favor in November. But if we have riots all summer and the main concern of the Americans is not his management of the coronavirus crisis but insecurity, he will be in a strong position to mobilize his base.

Protesters lying on the ground in Portland. - Beth Nakamura / AP / SIPA

More than 1,000 people are killed by police each year in the United States. How did we get virtual immunity for the police?

From the earliest days, inequality has been part of American society, with a structure cementing the second class status of African Americans via state laws (on slavery) and a long tradition of armed militias (at the heart of the second amendment). Today's police are heirs to these traditions and often use excessive force against African Americans, in part because of implicit biases in the perception of their threat. On the judicial side, the police unions have considerable influence over the prosecutors, who are often elected.

Has there been any progress in the past ten years?

Yes, but they are far from sufficient. Groups like Campaign Zero have done a remarkable job of sifting through policies on the use of force. Some cities have adopted reforms (on choke plugs, bodycameras and de-escalation, in particular). We also see the emergence of prosecutors who pose as reformers and not allies of the police, as in Philadelphia. But overall, there is still a blatant lack of transparency and the police are rarely held accountable despite complaints.

Police kneel with protesters in Colorado, June 2, 2020. - Philip B. Poston / AP / SIPA

Many activists believe that Barack Obama has not done enough on police violence - and more broadly for the black community. Are they right?

These are legitimate criticisms. Its political success has always rested on its ability to reassure the white electorate. He was trapped by this status of first black president, and each of his actions examined through this prism. The health reform was real progress for the African-American community, although it could not go all the way [on a public insurance option] because it was limited by Congress. But on immigration, the prison system or the war on drugs, he maintained the policies of the past and sometimes hardened them.

Do you remain optimistic about possible progress on racial inequalities?

What gives me hope is not so much the ability to change people's thoughts as their actions. The work of psychologist Betsy Levy Paluck in Rwanda shows that when people are exposed to a message of tolerance, it does not necessarily change their internal biases. But if they feel that societal norms have changed, they change their behavior in public. In short, the power of the group seems stronger than the individual biases. On gay marriage, activism and advances in representation in society and on television had a massive impact on public opinion, and then legislation followed suit. On racial inequalities, a fundamental change is taking place before our eyes, with the mobilization of minorities, youth and part of the white population. If culture progresses, the law will follow.

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