Racism: No Improvement In The US Despite The Passage Of A Black President

The eight-year presidency of Barack Obama in the United States has not helped to reduce the racism that reigns in the country, according to specialists who fear an escalation of tensions.

“If Martin Luther King still lived today, I think he would say:” I still have a dream “, said Charles-Philippe David, president of the Observatory on the United United and founder of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair.

The professor of political science at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) refers to the famous speech “I have a dream”, of the peaceful activist for the improvement of the civil rights of the Afro- American, pronounced in 1963.

No evolution

For more than a week, demonstrations and riots have broken out across the United States following the death of an African American, suffocated under the knee of a police officer.a

The officer’s murder charge did not ease tensions.

David says little has been done to improve the cause of racism, even though the first African-American president, Barack Obama, ruled the country between 2009 and 2017.

“People hoped it would get better [with Obama as president], but the reality is that civil rights have not changed,” said Concordia University political science professor and specialist in the United States. , Graham Dodds.

US political scientist Rafael Jacob says current president Donald Trump has added fuel to the fire by declaring on Monday that he would not hesitate to send the military to the streets to restore order.

“When I see armed citizens in front of their houses to protect themselves, I tell myself that I am not in a hurry for rioters to arrive in the neighbourhood. It could slip even more, “believes Mr. Jacob, who is also a Raoul-Dandurand researcher.

He recalls that the number of weapons in circulation in the United States does not help the situation, but does not believe that the country could pour towards the civil war for the moment.