I don’t doubt the sincerity of people taking to the streets across America to call for a fairer justice system — especially those who are marching every day and into the night. Still, the almost comical public self-flagellation of some white protesters suggests they are more interested in being seen protesting than truly effecting change. Such is the case with those enjoying Washington’s warming weather in Logan Circle each afternoon. The legitimacy of their socializing in the sun is shielded by sporadically taking a knee.
A similar dynamic is at play around the world. Take Justin Trudeau’s ludicrous pause Tuesday when he was asked for his reaction to the protests. Straight out of the Tony Blair eloquent pause textbook, Trudeau took 20 seconds to respond. The Canadian Prime Minister’s former black-face exploits long forgotten, the media reaction to his response was near orgasmic. Trudeau, CNN’s Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo agreed, is “many of us.”
Forgetting Italy’s appalling structural racism and that nation’s tolerance of soccer fans who throw monkey chants and bananas at black players, the New York Times emphasized Italians who are suddenly alarmed by American racism.
Similar were the reactions in Paris and London, where protesters took to the streets and, in the latter case, skirmished with police officers outside Downing Street. Such was their solidarity with peaceful protesters 4,000 miles away in Minneapolis. It’s unclear why, as the Atlantic Council’s Benjamin Haddad pointed out, thousands of French will protest for one foreigner but care not one whit for the victims of previous racist atrocities on their own soil.
One might almost fail to notice, watching Europeans signal their own nonexistent virtue, that the United States is a historically unprecedented experiment in racial diversity, bringing vast numbers of racially and ethnically diverse people into contact. There will inevitably be a greater volume of racist incidents, but people of vastly different backgrounds also live in peace and harmony on a scale you just won’t see elsewhere.
A good number of white people see this tragedy as a chance to be “culturally relevant.” These protests also offer a chance to wave woke credentials before their friends and even just escape the tedium and isolation of the coronavirus lockdowns. Whether in Europe or the U.S., George Floyd is now the cause célèbre of the moment as much as he is a victim of a grave injustice.
And before they look down their noses, Europeans especially ought to look in the mirror, first.
