As Minnesota Burns, Meet Oregon's White Supremacists Reviving America's Racist Past
As protests rage in Minnesota over the killing of George Floyd at the hands of the police, BBC journalist Mobeen Azhar tries to understand the sickening murder of yet another african-american, Larnell Bruce, in “A Black and White Killing”, who was run over by white supremacist Russell Courtier of Portland, Oregon back in 2016.
At the time, CCTV of the incident went viral, confronting America with a racist past that is seeing a worrying resurgence. Mobeen flies to Oregon to witness Courtier’s trial while undertaking his own investigation. Behind Portland’s thin veil of liberal hipsterism, he discovers a shameless underbelly of extremism. He meets outwardly anti-black extremists and racist neo-nazi skinheads in a state that currently harbours 21 different white supremacist groups.
But, as Mobeen uncovers more information on the victim, a more complicated web of cause and effect leads to the racially-segregated American prison system, which gave birth to European Kindred, Courtier’s gang.
Meanwhile, the case continues to take place in court and the jury’s decision approaches. Was the killing truly driven by racism and will the court condemn the killer for a hate crime, the first in several decades?
This two-part series is an apt backdrop to the chaos that has engulfed Minnesota and makes a strong case for George Floyd’s death as symptomatic of a historical racism that America has failed to overcome.
Part 1 of “A Black and White Killing” will be shown on BBC2 at 23:30 on Tuesday 2nd June. Part 2 will be shown on BBC2 at 23:30 on Wednesday 3rd June.
Both episodes will then be available on BBC iPlayer in the UK only.
