I Can’t Breathe

The terrible murder of George Floyd at the hands of four members of the Minneapolis police is merely the drop to spill over a glass full of permanent structural violence against the African American population in the United States of America. The protests unleashed are an expression of enormous despair in the face of constant, lifelong grievances against the African American population in that country.

The United States is the country with the most incarcerated people in the world, among whom the African American population is much higher than the white population. This, despite the fact that approximately 75% of the population in the United States is white and only 14% is African American.

According to a study published in June 2016 by Ashley Nellis, an analyst and researcher at The Sentencing Project, for every white person in prison, there are 5.1 African American people incarcerated. In five states, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont and Wisconsin, there are 10 African Americans in prison for every white person. That is a ratio of 10-to-1. In 11 states, 1 in 20 African American males is in prison, and in Oklahoma, 1 in 15 African American men over the age of 18.

According to the aforementioned study, this policy of sanctioning and imprisoning African Americans causes serious additional consequences and collateral damage. Examples include instability and ruptures among families of the incarcerated, damage to the morale of children of incarcerated people, social stigmatization and enormous difficulties in finding employment once out of prison. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for the African American population in the United States is double that of the white population.

The murder of Floyd, aggravated by malice and privilege, is yet another example of terrible aggression and the submission of an entire population clearly identifiable by the color of their skin.

In reality, then, there is a regime disguised as a democracy, wherein systematic oppression and domination are exerted by a significant percentage of a white racial group over another, African American one.

The motive is the preservation of a nation that fails to detach itself from the ancient practice of apartheid, now a crime against humanity according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Which, needless to say, has not been ratified by the U.S. government.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Jesus Torres Gomez, professor at the International School of Law and Jurisprudence.