Floyd and Kogoya: How Structural Racism Haunts Our Reality
This article is co-written with my colleague, Naufal Rofi
We know what happened these few days. Everywhere we logged in to our social media, Instagram and TikTok, we saw the same marching mass that lifted the sign “Black Lives Matter” all over America. People of different races, coloured or not, scream their anger and frustration towards an unjust murder of a 46-year-old George Floyd.
On Monday evening, just as Floyd finished his grocery shopping, the store’s employee called the police to report an alleged counterfeit 20 dollar note that Floyd tried to pass. Based on a widely circulated video, viewers could see that Floyd was pinned to the ground with a police officer’s knee on his neck while yelling his infamous last words “I can’t breathe.” The video ends when paramedics lifted Floyd’s limp body to the stretcher.
As bitter and painful as Floyd’s death is, America was not the only country that endured such brutality. Fourteen thousand miles from America, the Indonesian society also persistently shows systematic racism towards ethnic minorities, the Papuan people. In 2016, a Papuan’s student, Obby Kogoya, was also pinned to the ground underneath a police officer’s knee just outside of his dormitory.
Kogoya was a Papuan student who lived in the Papua Dormitory in The Yogyakarta Special Region. Kogoya and his dormitory colleagues intended to support the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group, an international organization that championed the Melanesian nation’s right. Before he and his other comrades were able to proceed with their campaign, they were intercepted by the military and several hard-line community organizations (organisasi masyarakat) that cornered their dormitory in Yogyakarta.
In retrospect, when viewing both cases (Floyd and Kogoya), people could simply understand how two separate societies operate. Nowadays, even in their daily activities, African Americans continue to face prejudice and criminalization. In 2018 alone, over twenty headlines in CNN covered racist attitudes towards the African American community, particularly regarding daily activities for which police were called on, such as for operating a lemonade store, golfing too slowly, and waiting for a friend at Starbucks.
Those headlines show that there is a presupposed judgement towards the African American community. Even a former White House staffer was accused of burglarizing his apartment and a politician was called while she was campaigning door-to-door in her Wisconsin district, which shows that no African American, privileged or not privileged, could completely escape the racial segregation.
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, besides Kogoya, many Papuans have faced racist treatments including being target of racial slurs, such as: “monkey”, “stupid”, “troublemaker”, “lazybones”, and “drunkard”. Another one is “separatist”, indicating that many people still think all Papuans are supporters of the Free Papua Movement (a local movement that supports the West Papua’s right to self-determination). They are often identified with primitiveness and questioned by their peers regarding their way of life. It is also difficult for Papuan students to look for a boarding house outside their homeland, as many landlords explicitly say that they do not want to host people from Papua.
All over the USA, people grew impatient for the racial injustice that the African American face. Protesters, all over 140 cities all over the USA, looted and charged at police officers to demand justice for the African American communities. Prejudice was not the only factor that made George Floyd’s death the more appalling.
There have been far too many incidents that involve excessive use of force towards the African American community. Throughout the passing years, bystanders recorded the excessive use of force usage for “uncooperative” African Americans, who were mostly males. And when these “uncooperative” people responded to the arrest (most of these individuals comply with the arrest), they were forcibly detained and in worse cases fatally seized by the police officers. In 2015 alone, there were almost 1,134 young African American deaths caused by these police arrests, the number made up about 34% of unarmed civilian deaths in that year.
From one community to another, the Papuan community has had the same experiences befallen their community. Most of the Papuan community found it hard to embrace the Indonesian nationalist ideology, ever since the first military operation to “nationalize” Papua in 1963. Those who are brave enough to support the Free West Papua Movement face violence when campaigning for their rights, even when such campaigns never indicated any violent acts.
The Indonesian authorities have frequently been violent in reacting to several peaceful Free Papua Movement protests. Many of these protests, such as the pro-Independent demonstration in Manokwari on October 23, 2012 and the de jure Papuan independence day celebration on December 1, 2015, have been disbanded with excessive use of force. Simply waving the Papuan flag (Bendera Bintang Kejora) or conducting a peaceful protest to enunciate their minds was enough for the Indonesian police to violently disband those incidents and arbitrarily arrest the participant.
Viewing the racial context for both the Afro American and the Papuan people brought us a glimpse of their subjugation. Being an ethnic minority in a predominately monocultural group, both races do not possess a robust political bargaining power. The incapacitated position made the Papuans and African Americans susceptible to much excessive use of forces and racial prejudice.
What happened to Floyd and Kogoya is a repetitive violent cycle that targeted their particular race, a constant reminder that they do not have the political leverage to aid them. It is true that America and Indonesia have indeed come a long way to change several of its draconian laws such as having more quotas for African American representatives in the parliament and numerous Papuans serving the Presidential office. Such policy could not dismiss the fact that there are still many violent cases towards both races.
What happened in Indonesia and America could be mitigated if only the systemic racism is acknowledged by the community and the government, the American must learn how to utilize their voices in June, 9 2020 and November, 2020 responsibly, while victim-blaming and discriminatory hatred towards the Papuans who only want their voices to be heard as an Indonesian citizen do not chatter towards a unified Indonesia. To make a stable society, we need first to contribute our voices to each other’s cause without the fear of losing our privilege to make our country integrated as a strong society.