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Business News/ Opinion / Columns/  Opinion | Anti-racism protests in the US could work in favour of Trump
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Opinion | Anti-racism protests in the US could work in favour of Trump

The violence is overshadowing the real issue of injustice and may help him polarize voters even more

While protesters may claim that the violence has only been a small part of the overall agitation, perceptions may be quite different.Premium
While protesters may claim that the violence has only been a small part of the overall agitation, perceptions may be quite different.

The protests in the United States following the death of George Floyd may actually help Donald Trump get re-elected. As often happens in the US, the protests have spawned rioting, arson and looting. While protesters may claim that the violence has only been a small part of the overall agitation, perceptions may be quite different. After all, most American states have had to impose curfews. And the media, for obvious reasons, has covered the violence much more than the peaceful rallies. Journalists firmly believe that flaming houses sell, not silent marches.

When protests become violent, the original—and valid—point may get lost and only the looting and loss of property may remain in public memory. The movement can then easily and convincingly be branded as merely destructive and anti-social. Plus, there’s a contagion raging, and livelihoods and businesses were already in danger. It is all right for columnists and public intellectuals to rage from their sealed offices, but the sight of dense crowds and gutted shops are the last thing people with actual skin in the game may want to see right now. And a grand memorial service for Floyd, who had a criminal record, has not helped. Politicians ignore the silent peaceable majority at their own peril.

Optimists are going to town over policemen in many precincts “taking the knee", going down on one knee to apologize to the protesters and showing their sympathy for the cause. This could well be a rather idealistic and unrealistic view. US policemen are legendary for their code of sticking by one another. Their apologies and shows of sympathy may be little more than a way to quickly disperse the crowds without having to resort to violence.

Here are some interesting vignettes. On 28 May, sports journalist Chris Martin Palmer tweeted a photograph of a burning building in Minneapolis and wrote: “Burn that sh** down. Burn it all down." Three days later, he did a screeching U-turn and tweeted: “They just attacked our sister community down the street. It’s a gated community and they tried to climb the gates. They had to beat them back. Then destroyed a Starbucks and are now in front of my building. Get these animals TF out of my neighbourhood. Go back to where you live." Oops. There goes all the anti-racism fervour.

A video taken by a man driving down Manhattan’s luxury shopping district shows every single store boarded up and possibly looted—from Saks to Macy’s to Ferragamo—except for Gucci, which happens to be located in... Trump Tower. Apparently, the miscreants did not want to push their luck too much. Meanwhile, the Atlanta headquarters of CNN, which has been consistently anti-Trump, was attacked.

In a powerful piece, brand consultant Mark Ritson crushes corporate America’s hypocrisy (bit.ly/2Y3cVoQ). Among other things, he talks about a commercial Nike released after the protests that began: “For once, don’t do it, don’t turn your back on racism." He notes that “despite focusing on sports that have a significant skew towards African American athletes, despite making much of its North American profit from black consumers, despite signing many of the world’s most famous athletes of colour as spokespeople", the company’s leadership team is entirely Caucasian. How fake can your social conscience get?

Some of my India-born friends in the US are busy condemning racism and cheering on the riots. They forget that looting does not discriminate between races—many African-American-owned shops have also been burnt down. For many of them, their anger seems to stem from nothing deeper than their hatred for Trump (whom they are of course free to hate as much as they like). And, let’s face it, Indians display racist attitudes all the time. A variety of pejorative terms are used for people seen to be from other parts of the country, often accompanied by misconceptions and disdain. Even some Indian-origin South Africans who faced apartheid like all non-Caucasians are not above using derisive labels for their darker-skinned countrymen.

The US protests, which disobeyed social-distancing norms, could spark a resurgence in covid cases. Demonstrations have taken place in each of the 25 US communities with the highest concentration of new cases. The actor James Woods has cynically joked: “This much is certain after all this rioting. In two weeks we’re going have either a sh**load of sick Democrats, or we’re going to realize covid-19 was not what Democrats said it was." Either way, it works for Trump.

The US has never been so polarized since the Civil War, and Trump has revelled in this great divide. Today, he has merely to keep tweeting about the looting, accuse Democrat-run states of not being able to protect the innocent, and emphasize that the violence should have been nipped in the bud with unflinching force, as he has been asking for from the start. Unless all African-Americans and all young Caucasians who hate Trump come out and vote against him in the November election, it will be difficult for him to lose. But November is five months away. By that time, the dominant memory for a lot of Americans may be that of arson and looting, and not the just cause of the protests—institutionalized racism.

Sandipan Deb is a former editor of ‘Financial Express’, and founder-editor of ‘Open’ and ‘Swarajya’ magazines

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Published: 07 Jun 2020, 08:04 PM IST
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