I have tried many ways to start this blog, but I have found no perfect way that will capture your interests. I’m starting this because of my brother, and he even told me to do this weeks ago, and I did actually write a draft. Unfortunately, I got lazy, but then I started to think about it, and this blog could do wonders for my future. No matter who ended up reading it, no matter how many people ended up reading it, I enjoy this. Isn’t that what matters? All this blog will do will give me feedback and help me progress further in life.

I am a 14 year old girl from Nepal, and if you have decided to stop reading because I am 14, then that is called ageism. If you have decided to stop reading because I am female, then that is called sexism. If you have decided to stop reading because I am Asian, then that is called racism. All of these things are in fact a type of violence. Structural Violence.

As Johan Galtung defined in 1969 “Structural violence is an avoidable impairment of fundamental needs.” 1 This definition includes all of the things I said before, and any other types of discrimination against human kind. These things are classified as a type of violence, and they cannot be ignored, because perhaps they are one of the most important type.

The definition originally founded by Galtung was extended by Paul Farmer, who said “The arrangements are structural because they are embedded in the political and economic organization of our social world; they are violent because they cause injury to people (typically, not those responsible for perpetuating such inequalities).” 2

They are violent because they cause injury to people.

A violence that America has been fighting for years, and yet somehow people still seem to justify why the colour of one’s skin can be an excuse to treat a human being so horribly. While there are many sides to a story, racism is not a side, or an excuse. It is perpetrating violence to a victim.

As of now, George Floyd’s death has shook the world, with protests in America like never before, even during the pandemic we are all facing. The police officer, Derek Chauvin, has now been charged with second degree murder, although had originally been charged with third degree murder and second degree man slaughter.

The encounter between Floyd and Chauvin, while as sad as it is, is a common encounter between police and black citizens. While this post is about racism, I would like to remind everyone that just because a black person is being apprehended by police. This does not mean that it is an act of racism, even if the person has been wrongfully accused. I myself have only learnt this a few days ago. The reason I searched about Chauvin, was to see if this was an act of racism, or a police man finding a mismatched suspect.

Many must be confused as to what mismatched means. It is when one’s attitude does not fit in with the normal reactions. When Floyd was being arrested, did he turn, no longer showing one side of him? Did Chauvin mistake that for Floyd hiding a gun? I learnt this through the book “Talking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell.

Mismatched is another way of saying that someone has misinterpreted a situation, because they have thought that certain actions meant that the person being blamed was guilty. However, the person being blamed may have also done things that made them look innocent. In the eyes of the accuser, this reaction only makes them think that they see a sign of someone guilty, who is trying to seem innocent.

The book “Talking to Strangers” talks about how police officers can misinterpret information, and how we as strangers, can misinterpret a situation into thinking that it is something that it is not. Police officers have been trained to suspect anyone, and anything that suggests that someone is a suspect. This can make an officer go to extreme methods, for the fear that the suspect is dangerous. The example Gladwell used was the one with Sandra Bland, who was a black woman, forced out of her car by a white officer, for merely forgetting to turn her side light on when turning. She was sent to jail and committed suicide.

Although this crime looked like an act of racism, that was not the case. The officer saw Bland turn to the side, and thought she was hiding a gun. She spoke quickly and had only entered the city recently. He had been trained to take in anything that could suggest that people were guilty, and he thought all of Bland’s actions were transparent. That the reason she spoke so angrily was because she had something to hide. It turns out Bland had a bad history with police officers, and had been wrongfully accused a lot, and as Bland was scared, and the officer misinterpreting, the situation went out of hand.

Unfortunately, I could not find any evidence saying that Floyd’s case was not an act of racism, and I did not do this research to justify what Chauvin did, but for the fact that perhaps we have interpreted the situation wrong, that perhaps Floyd did the smallest thing that let Chauvin to think he was dangerous.

However, nothing has been said to prove this, therefore making George Floyd’s death an act of racism. This makes his death a mix of two types of violences, one being structural.

I want to be a prosecutor when I am older, and these are the types of cases I would like to take part in. The cases where discrimination has led to something that it should never lead to. I believe it is important to emphasise both sides of the story, as being a prosecutor means to figure out who is to blame, but also what to blame them for.

This blog may not always be about violence, or cases like these, they are really going to be about just anything that I learn, and it so happens that I have learnt about this. And this, it cannot be ignored because the world is changing. It is time for everyone to recognise that, and stand up against racism. For people to stand up against violence. As Johan Galtung once said, it is “an avoidable impairment,” so let us avoid it together.

Reference

1 Volume 43 of Der Burger im Staat page 106, in Ho Kathleen “Structural Violence as a Human Rights Violation”

2 Article by Paul Farmer “ Structural Violence and Clinical Medicine”