The information that it will be Blackout Tuesday was communicated to us on June 2nd. At that time, each and every one of us ought to have looked for trustworthy information regarding the events that have been taking place all over the world and the problems that are associated with racism. I have been a firm believer in the assertion that knowledge is power for a considerable amount of time. It is time for all of us to stop being ignorant or remaining silent about this issue. What we need to do is get together and collaborate on this. I am a white American woman who subscribes to the belief that all people are equal, regardless of factors such as race, age, gender, or LGBTQ status.
Racism is a Problem
Because I am white, I have not experienced the challenges that people of African American or other races have faced in the United States. But I want to comprehend, and I want to be of assistance in any way that I can. I have been a resident of Sweden for the past three years. The assertion that this location is a safe haven for people of all walks of life is not supported by the facts. It is also a problem that racism exists here! We are dealing with a global issue. I’ve heard some of my friends’ stories about how it has been for them to relocate to Sweden from other countries. These friends come from other countries. In light of the fact that this occurs, we ought to assist one another and none of us ought to turn a blind eye.
How Protests All Began in USA
Immediately following the death of African American George Floyd, the demonstrations began the following day. This is just one of the many instances of racism that have taken place in the United States. All of this transpired when he was arrested for a counterfeit twenty dollar bill. He was 46 years old at the time. As a result of the virus’s spread, he, along with a great number of other Americans, was laid off. George Floyd relocated from Houston, Texas to Minneapolis, Minnesota, looking for a new beginning. He did this because he desired a clean slate. “The Gentle Giant” and “Big Floyd” were two of the nicknames that he was known by among his friends.
As George Floyd’s Last Moments Happened…
When George was purchasing cigarettes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he was taken into custody outside of a store near the store. Because the cashier at the store had a hunch that the twenty dollar bill was a fake, he decided to call the appropriate authorities. Upon the arrival of the law enforcement officers, one of them, Thomas Lane, draws his weapon and gives the order to George Floyd to exit the vehicle that he was riding in. It is not possible to provide an explanation for why he pulled out his gun.
George Floyd is dragged out of the vehicle by Mr. Lane, and according to the prosecution, he “actively resisted being handcuffed.”nnnIn the process of Mr. Lane explaining to George the reason he was being arrested (which was “passing counterfeit currency”), George became more relaxed as he was being handcuffed. After that, the officer had significant difficulties getting George into the squad car. The fact that George had told the police that he suffered from claustrophobia made him hesitant to enter the building.
Derek Chauvin Arrives to Start Racism Issues
When Mr. Chauvin arrived at the scene, during the time that the police were attempting to force George into the car, Mr. Chauvin pulled George away from the car. As a result, George ended up lying on the ground with his face down and still wearing his handcuffs attached.
It appeared as though George was in a state of panic at this time, and it was at this point that witnesses came out with their phones and started recording. The officers were able to restrain him, and Mr. Chauvin placed his left knee on George Floyd at the point where the neck meets the head. At this point, George Floyd made the announcement, “I am unable to breathe.” “Please, please, please,” he pleaded, repeating this over and over again.
Officer Derek Chauvin’s Deadly Actions
The report from the prosecutors states that Mr. Chauvin had his knee in that position for a total of 8 minutes and 46 seconds. During the time that George Floyd was pleading for his life, the other officers did nothing. In the course of the restraint, George did not become silent until six minutes had passed for him. It was at that point that witnesses urged the police to check his pulse. In the process of checking George’s pulse on his wrist, Officer JA Kueng did not discover anything. None of the other officers made even a single movement. There was no action taken by the other officers to assist George Floyd, who was pleading for our assistance.
After eight minutes and forty-six seconds, Mr. Chauvin was finally able to remove his knee from George Floyd, who wasn’t moving at the time. While he was being transported to Hennepin County Medical Center in an ambulance, he was rolled onto a gurney at this point. When they finally announced that George Floyd had passed away, it was an hour later. BBC has provided this information regarding the final thirty minutes of George Floyd’s performance. You can check it out by clicking on the link.
Racism Issues: Past Victims in USA
Many of these cases are not even known to the public, despite the fact that there are a great number of them. It is something that occurs on a daily basis in this country, and it appears that a lot of people have become bored with it just recently. Every person’s life is important. When someone raises the slogan “Black Lives Matter,” they are not implying that other lives are not important. In other words, it indicates that black lives have been struggling against injustices for hundreds of years. Because of their lack of white privilege, they have struggled to achieve the freedom that is afforded to white people. There are a lot of people who aren’t even aware of how different and tragic it can be for some people simply because of the color of their skin.
The Murder of Ahmaud Arbery
Ohmaud Arbery, a black man of 25 years, was out for a short run when two armed white men came after him and shot him. A dad named Gregory McMichael (ex-Glynn County Police Officer) and his son Travis McMichael live in a coastal neighborhood in Southern Georgia. Nothing had been done. No one was charged with the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. This wasn’t fixed for months, and a lot of people had to speak out. When the event was written about in The New York Times and a video of it came out, it got more attention. A lot of famous people, activists, and even the Georgia Bureau of Investigation showed up to look into this.
Middle of the Day Shooting
Finally, the police caught the dad and his kid. They are now being charged with murder and heavy assault. For months, nothing was being done until the Georgia Bureau of Investigation stepped in. Videos started going viral because of this. The Atlanta Journal made a schedule for Mr. Arbery. Ohmaud Arbery was killed on February 23rd in the middle of the day. This story was in The New York Times, and you can read it here. I want to help you learn more about what has happened in this country, so I’m using good sources. This is another article from The Atlantic that talks about the “racial contract” in the case of Ahmaud Arbery. Check it out here.
Breonna Taylor’s Death While Sleeping
Because this event took place when the virus started to spread around the world. Nobody knew what happened to Breonna Taylor as much as they should have. A lot of people would have been very upset about this if the virus hadn’t been going around at the same time.nnBreonna Taylor, who is 26 years old, was working as an EMT in Louisville at the same time that the virus spread across the country.
In the middle of the night on March 13, police broke into Breonna’s apartment and shot her at least eight times while she was in bed. Officials say the officers broke into the apartment without being asked because they were carrying out a drug warrant. The lawsuit from April 27th said that the man they had a warrant for didn’t even live in the complex, let alone Breonna’s apartment. When police came to her apartment, they had this man in custody. Kenneth Walker, Breonna’s boyfriend, was at the apartment when this happened. He shot at the police when they didn’t make an announcement because he thought it was a break-in.
Where’s the Justice?
Breonna Taylor had never done anything wrong and had a clean record. She was sleeping in her apartment when a lot of bullets hit her. That was the end of Breonna, who has never done anything wrong. The police officers who shot Breonna Taylor have not been charged with anything. They say that the investigation is still going on. The lives of everyone should matter right now, no matter what happens. It’s time to help her.
Find out More about Racism Issues
This information comes from Washington Post and the 19th (a nonprofit newsroom that deals with gender, politics, and policy) and you can read more about this here. Learn more about this case that has gone unnoticed with the pandemic happening.nnThat is just some of the racism issues and events that have happened in USA recently. If you want to read about more of them, check out NPR. On this article they have links to articles about several different black people that have lost their life unjustly.
Global Racism Issues
There are problems with racism in many countries. And it’s not just racism in the US. Plus, sexism makes it even worse for women than for men. As of now, several black women who have been beaten by police have not been given justice. The names of a lot of black men are now known. What about the black women, though?
There have been problems with many other races around the world, and when gender comes into it, it’s more likely to be ignored. No one should be okay with this. No matter how different people are mentally or physically, they are all equal. I’m a member of the Swedish Feminist Initiative political party. That’s why I really think that men and women should be equal. That includes your LGBTQ status, race, and age.
Police Brutality
If you want to learn more about police brutality towards black women, check out this article written by Time magazine here. Or you can learn more about the history of racism on a global scale in this article. This is from racialequitytools.org.
Racism Issues in Europe
“People of color are dying because of police brutality and too many checks and balances,” Karen Taylor said. “This is true in both the US and Europe.” There have been racism problems all over the world for a long time. Different countries in Europe have dealt with it in different ways. Still, some of it has not been punished. The George Floyd protest has spread all over the world since it began. When it comes to race, every country is different.
In Brussels
Arab-born 19-year-old Adil C. was killed in Brussels as he ran away from police. Checking to see if lockdown was respected. In France, a 34-year-old man named Mohamed G. died after being pulled over by police for not following key safety rules. A lot of places in Europe already have racism problems, and it looks like they’re getting worse in many places. These are just a few of the cases that have happened in a few European countries.
There are loads that go undocumented or unnoticed.nnYou can learn about racism in Europe from European Network Against Racism (ENAR) here.
Victims in Sweden
It all began with the trains in Stockholm. Guards pushed a black woman who was very pregnant off of a train on February 3, 2019, and put her on a bench on her stomach. She screamed in pain, and in a month her baby would be born. Because she couldn’t find her train ticket and the train host told her to get off the train, this began. The black woman got angry and said she wasn’t feeling well. But police were called. They grabbed her and helped her get off the train. They made her lie on her stomach on a bench at this point. This was all seen by her young daughter, who was with her.
There were many witnesses and phones out filming it to validate that she was mishandled. Here’s an article from New York Times that explains this incident in more detail. I have another article from the Guardian that you can also check out.
Victims in Germany
A far-right 43-year-old man shot and killed someone in a town known for its diversity. Germany has strict privacy laws that say a name can’t be shared.In February 2020, this took place at a hookah bar. A lot of people were hurt, and many of them came from families that have lived in Germany for generations. Ferhat Unvar was the name of one of the victims. He was 23 years old and had just gone out with some friends. He finished his training to install heating systems not long ago.
Right Wing Movements
Around the world, the number of far-right people grew. There have been 500 more hate crimes and racism cases since 2017 to 2018. All over Germany, there are more and more racist and violent crimes. It’s even targeting politicians. Walt Lübcke was shot in June 2020. He was a conservative who supported refugees. The murder was admitted to by a neo-Nazi man who had a history of hurting people of color. There haven’t been any political killings since the time of the Nazis until now. People in charge of security found that Walter Lübcke was on a list of people who should be killed.
Germany’s gun laws are some of the strictest in the world. But now it’s even stricter. There are more and more right-wing movements, and many minorities think the government doesn’t do enough to stop these extremists. A freelancer who moved to Germany who wrote about what it was like for him to be black there. Check it out here. Some people have to deal with racial issues every day. This will give you an idea of some of those issues.
New York Times writes about the shooting that happened in Hanau, Germany. You can check it out here to learn more. This is where I found my information.
Victims in France
There was a black man named Adama Traoré who was killed by police in Paris, France, in 2016. People all over the world have been protesting George Floyd. In Paris, 20,000 people also took to the streets to support Adama Traoré. When people protest in George Floyd, they say they don’t just fight for Traore’s family; they fight for everyone’s rights.
What Happened to Adama Traoré
Adama Traoré went out with his older brother Bagui in northern Paris for his 24th birthday. They were stopped by two shady cops, and Adama Traoré didn’t have his papers with him. He ran away because he didn’t want to go to the station and be questioned for a long time. The three cops caught him at an apartment building nearby where he had run to. Adama Traoré’s back was being weighed down by all three of them. According to witnesses, he wasn’t trying to fight the police. Traoré couldn’t breathe right because of all the stress on him. He told them, “I can’t breathe.”
Adama Traoré started to pass out and pee himself as he was being driven to the police car. The police station called for firefighters to help with medical needs. It wasn’t left up to Adama Traoré to recover. The fire fighters said that Adama Traoré was left “face-down with no one helping him.” The emergency medical team said Adama Traoré was dead at 7 p.m.
4 Years Later with the Case
It took four years for the truth to come out about this case. The Traoré family finally got an independent autopsy report on Tuesday, June 2nd, which said that Adama Traoré died because of how he was arrested. The first autopsy they did said Adama Traoré died of a heart attack and a blood infection. But Adama Traoré did not already have any health problems. There was a second autopsy because the Traoré family asked for it. This time, the direct cause of death was asphyxiation. This went back and forth, and three doctors said that violence wasn’t what killed the person.
Why did the family and anti-racist activists think this was done that way? When they got that last report in June, there were protests for George Floyd, Adama Traoré, and everyone else who doesn’t have the same rights. The people who are supposed to protect others took the lives of these two men in very similar, cruel ways. Every life is important, not just black lives.
My information comes from Time magazine. If you want to read their article, you can find it here.
How Can We Help Racism Issues?
We should all show our support for Black Lives Matter. Protests that are peaceful will help get the word out right now. This isn’t something we can let go of until it feels better. There will be a lot of attention on other things right now because the USA is having elections. We can’t get along because of the virus. But the web and social media are still around. Making the most of that will help you get your message across. Make it clear that you back them. It’s important to be united and care for each other. Going from violence to violence doesn’t solve anything!
Knowledge is Power!
Educate yourself! Find out about all the racist problems that have happened around the world. Also, be sure that the source of your information is a good one. A lot of she said/he said and conspiracy theories are going around. The best way to get useful information is to do research. So, I linked every piece of writing or website I used in this piece. You can give money to the cause. Reach out to Black Lives Matter groups near you to give money or help in some other way.
There are loads of petitions on Change.org that you can sign if you believe in them. It’s time for us not to stay silent! It doesn’t matter your race, age, gender, or LGBTQ. Everyone has a voice, and everyone should use it!
If you want to give back to the black businesses, then check out Support Black-Owned Businesses: 450+ Places to Start Online.
Misfit Wanders Travel Blog
Usually, I write about hikes within Sweden or the wilderness as I travel. Since there is a spread from George Floyd’s death, I felt that this article needed to be written about global racism issues. So, with this article, I can help people find the information and gain knowledge about what has happened and how racism issues are global problems. If you need to take a step back an enjoy nature in your spare time, you can check out Hiking in Sweden. Or learn more about me here.