Spatial conquest, ethnic violence ... "America has gone back fifty years!"

Jean-Éric Branaa is a lecturer at Paris II Panthéon-Assas University and a researcher at the Thucydide center and the IRIS institute. He recently published Joe Biden: Barack Obama's 3rd term (VA Press, 2019) .

FIGAROVOX.- Thursday evening, Elon Musk joined forces with NASA to enable America to regain its independence in the field of manned space flight; and at the same time, the street rises to render "justice" to George Floyd, a black American killed during his arrest. Have we returned to America in the 1960s?

Jean-Éric BRANAA.- If we look at what's going on today, it's furiously similar. This space conquest represents the American dream which is to go higher, stronger, further. In 1968 like this week, we witnessed the technological triumph of the United States. And besides that, there is a company which does not profit at all from this American dream, and which precisely would like to be part of it. I think we have jumped 50 years back, yes.

The black population seems to have been hit more severely by the coronavirus, whereas it represents only 13% of the population of the United States, which underlined certain social disparities…

Obviously, we had a containment effect. The African American community is more fragile than the rest of society. Poorer, she has always had more problems accessing employment, culture, education, care ... There is much more delinquency.

But black Americans believe that justice is more severe against them than against whites. All of this was exacerbated during the health crisis. The death of George Floyd is experienced as one more injustice. And above all, it comes at a time when they are promised a "world after".

Can we speak of the concretization of a "cultural war" to use the words of journalist Rod Dreher ? According to him, since the 1960s, the academic and media left has preached the idea that blacks are oppressed and that their rage is legitimate ...

I join him without joining him. This is not entirely untrue. I'm going to adjust: the 1960s were marked by the birth of "progressivism", so we wanted to change society. Necessarily changing society implies an improvement for some, which will necessarily be at the expense of others. The demand for improvement has been very strong for all minorities in general: homosexuals, black Americans, Hispanics, etc. As a result of communicating vessels, the one who suffers the most is the white male, who for years has been losing power continuously. He said nothing because in urban areas it was done quite naturally. It was in the provinces that it got stuck. In fact it hardly changed. When you go to the center of the United States or to rural areas, you can see that ancient America is still there, which makes the contrast with the cities quite significant. When Donald Trump arrived, there was a kind of revenge, because people in the countryside voted for him to give them back the rights they had lost.

For example, in the USA, to enter the University, the recruiter who has the choice between two similar files will pass the person of color. This is called "positive discrimination" and it is upside down racism. Indeed the debate is biased because it is very difficult to weigh. Society has to move forward and that is what is difficult in this debate.

In 2016, Donald Trump gave a kind of valve to the people of rural areas. He heard them and promised to restore the America they knew. It is somewhat the subject of "Make America great again "; " I will take you back ."

Read also: Our report in Minneapolis, in the epicenter of the riots that ignite the United States

With his provocative tweets and his decision to consider ultra-left groups as terrorist organizations, Donald Trump is splitting more than ever. Does he play his re-election in November?

Trump is trying to play a dangerous game. Here too, we are going back to the 1960s. Again, the 1960s was first of all the struggle against the war in Vietnam, it was youth against old age, liberalism against conservatism. Elected politicians Wallace and Nixon also clashed. But it was their strategy: their goal was that the Conservatives, those we can call "the good people", attack the others. Trump wants to use the same recipe so he cleaves. It is said that if in the street it goes very badly, those who are not there will vote for him. Except that the problem is that those who are on the street are not hairy sixty-eight, but young society. They want more generosity, sharing, inclusion. There is a part of these demonstrations which have a taste of 1968 but the Revolution in less. The idea of ​​breaking to rebuild is not there. Universities are not going to rebel and reinvent themselves. There will necessarily be an impact on the presidential election. The African American community voted 8% for him in 2016 but there he is compacting it against him.

The Department of Defense ordered the military on Saturday to prepare to deploy military police units, which had not been done since the 1992 Los Angeles riots for Rodney King. Should we fear an escalation?

He said at first "When the looting begins, the shooting begins" ( "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" ). In reality it is a historical quote. This phrase was spoken by Miami police chief Walter Headley in 1967 in response to the racial riots.

At that time, it was racist because the police were still fighting severely against obtaining civil rights for black Americans. It was this sentence that really caused the problem. He did not return to it, which can be considered as provocation. If there are people who break up and send the army, it won't shock anyone. At some point, order will have to be restored.

The problem is not deploying the army, it is saying that it will shoot the crowd. Because the crowd is their people they are supposed to protect.