The slogan “Black Lives Matter” (“Black lives matter”) painted in giant letters in front of the Trump Tower on 5th Avenue: the city of New York, Democratic stronghold, has given itself a photogenic snub to Donald Trump Thursday.
A similar operation had been a resounding success in early June in Washington, where the Democratic mayor had these words painted on a street leading to the White House. Six weeks after the death of George Floyd, killed by a white policeman in Minneapolis on May 25, it is the prestigious New York avenue which has been adorned with the letters of the movement, under the gaze of many photographers and televisions.
At the end of the marking, the far left mayor Bill de Blasio came to add a few touches of yellow, along with other officials including the Reverend Al Sharpton, a figure in the fight for racial justice. On July 1, the mayor explained that he wanted the Republican president to hear “three words for which he has never shown any respect”.
“A formidable symbol”
Donald Trump did not immediately react. At the beginning of July, he had tweeted that the police should “perhaps” not allow “this symbol of hatred to be affixed on the most prestigious street in New York”. The few police officers present Thursday witnessed the operation without a word.
The ex-New York real estate mogul lived in a triplex at the top of this skyscraper near Central Park until he left for the White House in January 2017. Since November 2019, he has been doing his complex hotelier of Mar-a-Lago, Florida, his official residence, abandoning a city largely hostile to his presidency.
Many witnesses to Thursday’s marking ceremony hailed “an important symbol.” “It’s a great symbol,” said Amber Fairweather, 37. “I just hope it goes beyond that, and that in three months, people still believe it.” “I don’t trust my fellow citizens, and especially not my white fellow citizens,” added the black woman, who says she has suffered professionally from the color of her skin. “We have the right to have paintings, but will we stop there?”
ats, afp
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