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    Death of George Floyd: The cry of the heart of Max Lefevre, staff member of the Minnesota Timberwolves

    Tensions are not waning in Minneapolis. The death of George Floyd has set the city ablaze, like others in the United States, and Max Lefevre is experiencing it closely since he lives there. This French member of the staff of the Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA) gives us his testimony on the situation. With first a letter written as a tear.

    At the end of the phone, or rather the video call, his emotion is palpable. A member of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ NBA staff since last summer, Frenchman Max Lefevre is experiencing events in Minneapolis, the city of his franchise, following the tragic death of George Floyd. He was asked to answer our questions about the situation. He agreed but initially wanted to read a letter. Words written as a cry of the heart and summarizing the heartbreak experienced in this city as across the United States after a case where many want to scream “too much is too much”

    “Sad and shocking are the words that come back, but in reality it’s very hypocritical. How can you be shocked when these problems come back all the time? How can you be shocked when it’s the daily life of black people in the United States? It’s time to stop being shocked and it’s time for the United States to wake up. For me, it’s more of a sense of incomprehension. I find it difficult to understand how it is possible for a human being to be treated in this way. But again, this is not an isolated incident.

    My wife is Tahitian and we have a seven-month-old daughter. The mere fact that soon I will have to have a conversation with her to explain that some people will treat her differently because of the color of her skin makes me sick. The Minneapolis community is in pain. It is a community where social divisions are evident and what has been going on for several days is simply the result of a population that is fed up. The city of Minneapolis is on fire. A demonstration passed down my house last night, it remained calm and peaceful, but in other neighborhoods these are images of war. Everything burns, riots with the police, looting, and until justice is done, I doubt it will stop.

    Moreover, when the leaders of this country are only promoting violence and racial division, it will not help. There is a problem of racism, yes, but that is not all. Social inequalities, lack of social coverage, inequalities in the justice system, lack of access to education and the quality of education in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, police brutality, the whole system is to be reformed. The conditions in which a very large part of the United States lives are inconceivable when one thinks of the country that claims to be the most powerful in the world. There is a problem, and it is a profound problem.

    It is not a black problem, or minorities, it is a societal problem, and we can no longer turn our heads. Until we are all concerned and ready to participate in change, nothing will change. The first step is to seek justice. What we have just seen is simply a murder in broad daylight by a person of authority who is supposed to protect the public. This must be punished. After that, we have to open a real dialogue, listen to these minorities, these people who are in pain, and act. We are all responsible for taking action and improving this society that is going badly.”

    Max, how do you feel about the city of Minneapolis as we speak? We have the impression that it is still different from cases of the same type that we saw before, that this time there is a real ras-le-bol.

    It’s really a mess, yes. It’s a blaze. People are fed up. I think what is also changing from other events of this kind in the past is that everyone is getting fed up, not just minority people. In the protests we saw, it was not only blacks but also whites, Hispanics. It was the United States, which relies on all these different people. It’s the wealth of this country and everyone’s getting fed up.

    Is tension rising in the city?

    yes, it went up a little bit every day, and people were having a hard time understanding why the policeman in question, and even the police.n question since the other three really did nothing to avoid this tragedy, had not yet been arrested. Apparently, the police officer who was responsible for George Floyd’s murder was arrested a short time ago, so I don’t know if it’s going to bring things down but there are demonstrations planned all weekend in downtown, there are people coming from all over the United States, all the American activists are going to move , the Black Panthers are supposed to be coming, it could really get very dangerous.

    You evoke a greater unity than in the past around this drama. Do you actually feel it in the city?

    We’re moving in that direction. There are always people who unfortunately do not understand people who prefer to focus on looting and rioting rather than what happened and the drama itself. I wouldn’t say it’s everyone, but more and more people are feeling concerned. We’ve had discussions with our coaches and our players and what really hurts black people here is the fact that it’s a very divided society in terms of races and that for them, the silence of white people makes even more noise than anything else. If we don’t say anything, in fact, we kind of agree in a way. Even though they know that for a lot of people, it’s hard to talk about it, they have a hard time understanding and they don’t want to say anything and make a deviation. But the black people we talked to, for them, it’s even worse when you say nothing.

    The NBA is a predominantly black league, where many players engage in these fights like LeBron James. How are things going with your players? Do they express the same as everyone else to see this?

    We had a conversation about Zoom with our franchise, the executives, the coaches and some players. The players who spoke were more of a sense of incomprehension. The players who have had white people with them all their lives, who have been good to them, who have coached them, who have helped them, who have educated them, to see this kind of thing, it is really incomprehensible to them. It’s difficult because we can’t put ourselves in their shoes. But seeing their incomprehension and pain, it hurt.

    What message do you send them? We’re trying to figure out how they can live it even with a privileged position as an NBA player?

    On the one hand, it is a privileged position for them, but the problem is that even if they are privileged, if they are arrested and the police do not know who they are, they remain black men. Being privileged or rich does not change the fact that their lives can be put at risk under these conditions, which in 2020 is difficult to accept and understand.

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