MICHAEL HAS HIGH HOPES FOLLOWING US PROTESTS
AS the harrowing images were shared around the globe of George Floyd’s last breaths under the knee of a Minneapolis Police Officer, all too sadly it seemed like the latest in a series of similar incidents that we’ve seen from the US over generations. With anxiety levels already high due to Covid-19, the US seemed like a powder-keg, and Floyd’s death was the spark to ignite it.
In the wake of this undignified and unnecessary death, violent scenes have been beamed across the Atlantic as protesters took to the streets across the US. In some areas, people’s furious anger erupted into violence and destruction on a large scale as pitched battles took place between riot police and protestors.
While here, we watch on with a detached morbid curiosity, for Wexford’s Michael Londra it was all to close to home. A resident of the US for the past 25 years, the epicentre of the protests, Minneapolis, is a city that the renowned singer knows only too well. He also has an apartment in downtown Chicago, another city which starred in some of the violent scenes beamed all over the world.
‘I live in Ames, Iowa,’ Michael explains. ‘I’m about three hours south of Minneapolis, so effectively, for me, Minneapolis is what Dublin is to Wexford. I go there quite a bit and I know the city quite well. While we saw violence spill onto the streets in Minneapolis and Chicago, where I am in Ames, the protests were very positive. It was police led. They joined with the protestors and took the knee and there was no threatening atmosphere at all.’
The same could not be said in Minneapolis, where the anger at the killing of another unarmed African American man provoked furious anger. Caught up in the situation was Michael’s friend and producer of his upcoming show ‘Ireland with Michael’ who grabbed his camera and rushed to the scene for NBC.
‘Yeah, Mike was even roughed up a bit,’ Michael says. ‘I talk to him every day and he’s doing okay and he’s working away as normal again now, but it was a frightening situation. Things in Minneapolis got completely out of control and it was so volatile, but it all seemed to change over the course of around three days. I think the upgrading of the charges against the police officers involved may have helped.’
‘When this all started with the death of George Floyd, I think everyone was already a little unnerved because of the Covid-19 situation,’ Michael explains. ‘It was already a stressful environment. It certainly crossed my mind early on that there could be violence on the streets. I started to think of my house and things like where I go for a run each day and I tried to avoid going downtown for a few days. It was an unsettling feeling. But then I thought of African American friends of mine and what they deal with being a person of colour in the US every single day. They were thinking of things like whether they could be tackled by the police or idiot racists as the situation got more serious. It was then I realised that I have no right to come at this through the lens of my privileged white world.’
Michael feels that the reality on the ground is that there is an inherent and systematic racism in the US.
‘The foundations of this country are shrouded with racism,’ he says. ‘It is everywhere in society. However, I do now see a glimmer of hope. I hope that this will be the issue to topple Trump and that now we will see policies put in place that will really change things.’
‘As cheesy as it sounds, I believe in the
American dream. I remember looking at JFK as a youngster, like everyone else in Wexford. He was the embodiment of the American dream. To a degree, I’ve been lucky enough to live it. I’ve enjoyed huge success over here over 25 years. But the American dream is now tarnished and it desperately needs redeeming. Over the next 25 years, and please God I’m here to see it, I hope the shine will come back.’
‘I’m hopeful for the future. It’s obvious that the US has got a lot of work to do, but this week it feels like a switch has been flipped. The violence is now gone. In a way it felt cathartic and like it had to happen, but I hope there’s now some light on the horizon.’
As America seems braced for some kind of transition, Michael is desperately awaiting clearance to return home to Wexford to finish recording ‘Ireland with Michael’ and he’s hoping that in July or August that Covid restrictions will have lifted enough to allow him enjoy a pint with family and friends in Simon Lambert’s.