As protests in the US have continued for almost two weeks after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died handcuffed in police custody, everybody seems to have an opinion to share. Not just in America, but all over the world.
Across the European continent there have been several supporting protests, for example in the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, and Denmark, where thousands of people have expressed anger towards racism and police brutality and called for justice.
While racism, intolerance, and inequality are serious global problems we should all fight against, one can’t avoid getting the feeling that something remarkable is going on in America right now. Something that has been simmering for a long time and now finally boiling over.
What’s happening in the US is however hard for non-Americans to fully comprehend. I’ll be the first one to admit that there’s a lot I don’t understand or simply know about. Issues that are cultural, structural, and political – not to mention historical – are notoriously difficult for outsiders to get their heads around. We can try to read and watch as much as possible in order to understand better, but unless you've actually been part of a culture, it’s hard to understand all the dimensions of structural racism and other societal problems.
Therefore, it’s probably wise for us in Europe to refrain from offering “good advice” to Americans. There’s probably way too much we don’t understand. In general, I think it’s a good strategy to think twice before offering unsolicited advice. Even though your intentions might be noble, the end result is often sour.
Everybody is of course entitled to their own opinion, regardless of the subject. After all, opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got one, and that’s the way it should be. Some opinions will be more informed than others, some will carry more weight than others, and that’s all fine. If you have a platform for sharing your opinion, then by all means do it, but please avoid taking a moral high ground.
When it comes to racism and justice, we Europeans aren’t much better than the Americans. You’ll find racism and intolerance in all corners of Europe. Also, some of us seem to have forgotten all the horrible things that took place on our continent just a few generations ago. Who knows what kind of a place we would be living in if the US hadn’t joined World War II.
Let’s hope that whatever is happening in America will play out peacefully and that this process will eventually have a positive and unifying impact on American society. There are many ways for us here in Europe to show support and solidarity for a good cause. Joining a support protest is just one of those ways. And in the end, perhaps all of this will inspire us to shine a light on our own problems too, the ones here in our own communities – the ones we all too often turn a blind eye to.