Wave of violent fury erupts across USA

Is the United State’s crisis, our crisis? The media presents American racism as a uniquely US problem. But evidence shows anti-black racism is rapidly worsening in the UK and Europe too. "I can't breathe." For nine minutes, a white police officer knelt on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, choking him to death. A video of the murder, which took place in the US city of Minneapolis, has been watched by millions. Furious protests have taken place in at least 30 cities across the USA. Some turned violent, with heavily equipped police and national guardsmen being drafted in to stop arson and looting. Even before the police officer who killed George Floyd was charged, a black CNN journalist covering the protests was arrested while on air. In New York, police cars drove into crowds of demonstrators. Secret service agents abruptly rushed Donald Trump to his underground bunker in the White House, where he continued to stoke the flames, tweeting threats to attack his own citizens with "shooting", "vicious dogs", and "ominous weapons". And then, last night, declaring a loose affiliation of left-wing protestors, known as AntifaAn international anarchist movement that frequently clashes with police and right-wing extremists., a "terrorist organisation". The dramatic scenes of burning buildings, militarised police, and emotional crowds is nothing new in the US. For a country whose ideal of individual freedom has long been undermined by slavery and segregation, police brutality is not so much a surprise as a reminder of a deep-seated trauma. As the actor Will Smith once put it, "Racism isn't getting worse. It's getting filmed." Yesterday, protesters in London, Cardiff, and Manchester gathered in solidarity. In London, demonstrators first gathered in Trafalgar Square, chanting, "No justice, no peace." Thousands then made their way through Whitehall past Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament, then over the Thames to the enormous and moated US embassy at Nine Elms in Battersea. Experts are warning that it is all too easy to see anti-black oppression as a uniquely American problem. "The UK is slowly waking up to the fact that racism exists here and the truth is, we have just as much of a race problem as the one so prominently associated with the USA," writes the black journalist Jazmin Kopotsha. Noel Clarke, the black English actor, says racism is just as embedded in the UK as it is in the USA, and that he has been silenced by individuals in the film industry for speaking up. "People act like this is just a US problem," he tweeted. "Racism is prevalent here too. It is embedded in the fabric of society, the industry I'm in. Sometimes it's hard to keep fighting, when whenever you speak up, you're silenced or labelled as aggressive, difficult or chippy." And in recent weeks, according to the Daily Mail, BAMEBlack, Asian and Minority Ethnic. people are 54% more likely to be stopped by police for breaching coronavirus-related restrictions. So, is America's crisis, our crisis? The fabric of society Yes. Many argue that anti-black racism has deep roots in white-dominated UK and European society. The tendency to absolve racism at home by deploring it in the USA is a particularly iniquitous attitude and needs to be fiercely resisted. That's going too far, others say. Though many European countries are responsible for countless racist atrocities, the US is a special case. After years of slavery and segregation, the pain of black Americans is of a particular and incomparable kind. KeywordsAntifa - An international anarchist movement that frequently clashes with police and right-wing extremists.