Protests over George Floyd's death expose raw race relations in lots of countries

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 within their own countries.

With violent clashes between protesters and authorities raging in america, anti-police-brutality activists gathered by the thousands to get the Black Lives Matter movement in a variety of European and African cities.

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

“If you wish to believe that we in holland do not have a problem with race, you is going ahead and go back 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 UNITED KINGDOM isn’t innocent,” while in Berlin around 2,000 persons protested beyond your U.S. embassy and two Bundesliga soccer players wore “Justice for George Floyd” shirts on Monday.

A similar message originated from Dominique Sopo, president of French NGO SOS Racisme, which organised a tiny protest outside the U.S. embassy in Paris on Monday.

“This matter of police racism is also, albeit with a lesser level of violence, a concern that concerns France,” he said.

Police in northern Paris fired tear gas on Tuesday to disperse demonstrators protesting over the 2016 death of a black Frenchman in police custody - an incident which 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 reach 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 several police brutality cases in low-income neighbourhoods where many originate from Africa.

CLASHES IN TURKEY

In Istanbul, a lot more than 50 persons 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, and other protesters gave speeches denouncing lethal police and bans on demonstrations in Turkey through 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 which 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 isn't a racist country”.

However, 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 U.S. 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. That is no protest but anarchy by #AntifaTerrorists.”

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

“We don’t have the annals of the civil rights movement in Holland, just what exactly occurred yesterday was really something new. It's the start of real dialogue.”