Czech MP Karel Schwarzenberg: Mr President, you've committed another complete faux pas

Czech MP Karel Schwarzenberg, a former Foreign Affairs Minister, has responded to the visit paid by Czech President Miloš Zeman to the residency of the Ambassador of the United States of America earlier this week and to the remarks he made on that occasion. Zeman criticized what he called the "opinion leaders" associated with protests against racism underway in the US and worldwide.
The Czech President said he did not need any new "Big Brothers" to tell him which values he should hold. He then labeled the "Black Lives Matter" slogan used in the American protests "racist".
Schwarzenberg has refuted that claim on his own Facebook page, posting: "Our President always prepares a surprise. At yesterday's annual reception at the residence of the American ambassador, at the close of his traditional speech, he said that 'Black Lives Matter' is a racist statement. It is not."
The MP recalls in his post how the slogan came about: "In some places - and I admit that this includes the two Central European countries that I actually know well - police officers are much more strict with darker-skinned citizens, and very often they are even rather brutal. When I was chair of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, I was rather frequently made aware of that fact. This is nothing new, not in America and not in Europe. In America the value of a human life - and maybe this is a tradition of the Wild West - is taken somewhat lightly, and many more dark-skinned Americans die at the hands of the police there than anybody else. That is the origin of the slogan calling for the importance of Black lives."
According to Schwarzenberg, the slogan is not aimed against anybody who is not Black. "This is the desperate cry of Americans who are not yet viewed as equal citizens always and everwhere, not even more than 150 years after the abolition of slavery. Mr President, once again, you have committed another complete faux pas," he posted.
Don't miss:
- Czech President Zeman marks US Independence Day by calling Black Lives Matter "racist"
- Commentary: Czech philosopher Daniel Kroupa has crossed the line, or: What is racism?
- Commentary: Romani actors should boycott Czech cop show over antigypsyist content
- Czech court hands down suspended three-year sentence to man who praised the terrorism in Christchurch, prosecutor appeals
- Czech Police intervene against yet another publisher of antisemitic books
- Czech man prosecuted for expressing support for Norwegian terrorist refuses to testify in court
- Chair of the Pirate Party in the Czech Republic stands up for Romani activist assaulted by hateful attackers
- Czech racists physically assault Romani activist Jozef Miker while shouting antigypsyist abuse
- Winning design for new memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in the Czech Republic features enormous circle at the site of the former concentration camp
Related articles:
- Brno cancels new refugee camp idea after overwhelming criticism and pressure from Czech Govt Human Rights Commissioner to negotiate on the situation of Romani refugees
- Brno, Czech Republic: 50 people protest city's treatment of Romani refugees from Ukraine
- Czech Republic's second-largest city to see day of demonstrations tomorrow against treatment of Romani refugees and their children
- Czech city to raze apartment buildings where local council briefly fenced off Romani residents from view after their non-Romani neighbors complained
- Czech mayor makes openly racist statement that her town just wants "white" refugees from Ukraine, not children and women of Romani origin
- USA: Racist murderer in Buffalo, New York charged with hate crimes, faces death penalty
- Romani organizer from North Macedonia discusses democracy with Barack Obama at Copenhagen Democracy Summit
- Slovakia to compensate Romani victims of police brutality after nine years of judicial procedures
- Petr Torák, MBE, refused restaurant service in Czech capital because he is Romani - interview will broadcast in Czech at 20:00 CET
- Czech Police tell public broadcaster that of more than 5 000 Romani refugees from Ukraine who have been vetted, just 150 have Hungarian passports
- Tomáš Ščuka: Representatives of Czech Republic's second-largest city say Romani women from Ukraine here are not refugees and they will not aid them
- Czech civil society representatives from the Grand Initiative: We couldn't ignore the inhumane conditions in which the Romani children and women fleeing the war are living in Brno
Tags:
Evropa, Karel Schwarzenberg, Miloš Zeman, RacismHEADLINE NEWS
