Sustainable Switch: Europe's rising racism

This is an excerpt of the Sustainable Switch newsletter, where we make sense of companies and governments grappling with climate change, diversity, and human rights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
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Hello,
Rising far-right nationalism in Europe and ongoing opposition to diversity policies by U.S. President Donald Trump have fueled a surge in anti-immigration sentiment and acts of racism targeting Black and ethnic communities worldwide.
We'll take a look at the shooting in France and the burning of an effigy of a Black player in Spain, which all took place within the same week as an anti-immigration riot in Northern Ireland.
Then we will examine the plight faced by teachers in the U.S. who focus on diversity or gender studies, and end with the ongoing legal dispute between a financial watchdog and a mortgage lending company over allegations of racial discrimination.
The shooting in France
A 45-year-old Tunisian barber Hichem Miraoui was shot by his neighbour at his home in the south of France late in May while chatting on the phone with his mother and sisters.
The shooter, Christophe Belgembe, also shot Miraoui's Kurdish neighbour, Akif Badur, in the hand, according to France's anti-terror prosecutor's office, known as PNAT.
Belgembe surrendered to police a few hours later and confessed, the PNAT said. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
He posted four videos on Facebook saying that the state was "unable to protect us, unable to send them home", that he had "taken out two or three pieces of shit" and this was only the beginning.
Belgembe denied any racist or terrorist motivation, but the PNAT charged him with racially motivated, premeditated murder and attempted murder as part of a terrorist undertaking.
The PNAT's move is indicative of a broader shift in France, where the number of jihadist attacks has fallen while racist, xenophobic, or anti-religious crimes are up 11% compared with last year amid growing support for the far-right.
The effigy in Spain
Four people have received suspended jail sentences of seven to 15 months from a Madrid court after being convicted of a hate crime for hanging an inflatable Black effigy, dressed in the jersey of Black Brazilian soccer star Vinicius Jr., from a bridge before a major soccer match in January 2023.
The group also displayed a banner that read "Madrid hates Real." Vinicius Jr. plays for Real Madrid, one of the world's most successful soccer teams, in the country's top professional league.
Anti-immigration riots
Last week's newsletter included a 'Talking Points' piece on the riots in the Northern Irish town of Ballymena, which first flared after two 14-year-old boys were arrested and appeared in court, accused of a serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in the town. The charges were read via a Romanian interpreter to the boys, whose lawyer told the court they denied the charge, the BBC reported.
By Thursday, the riots spread to different towns of the British-run province, including Portadown, which is 50 km from the capital, Belfast.
Keep scrolling for today's top Talking Points stories on diversity issues in the United States.
ESG LENS
In keeping with today's theme on migration, the Lens looks at the number of people booked into immigration detention who have been charged only with immigration violations. That number has jumped eightfold since President Donald Trump took office, government data shows, undercutting his anti-crime message.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention statistics show the number of detainees arrested by ICE with no other criminal charges, opens new tab or convictions rose from about 860 in January to 7,800 this month – a more than 800% increase.
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'He said goodbye and went to leave but for some reason when he got to the door he turned round and came and gave me a big hug and a kiss. ‌ 'We were close but that took me by surprise. I said to him, 'Oh, how delicious!' Now off you go to work' and he went. The next time I saw Jean was at the morgue.' Jean was on his way to the new job on the Friday morning when police started following him, believing he was one of the four men who had failed to detonate bombs on the capital's transport system the day before. One of the terrorists, Hussein Osman, lived in the same building as the three cousins. Patricia and Vivian heard about the shooting on the news, and later that the suspect had been an innocent Brazilian, but they never imagined it was Jean. ‌ Vivian, 42, woke up the following morning, still unaware. 'Everything was so silent at the house. I knocked on Jean's bedroom door, no answer,' she said. 'So I slowly opened the door. The bed was made, everything was neat and tidy. I just thought, 'Jean probably didn't come home last night'.' ‌ But then there was a knock at the door from two of Jean's friends who police had visited in the early hours. 'They told them he was suspected of terrorism and had been arrested,' she recalled. 'I was shocked. But I also had hope. It was just a matter of going to the police to clarify everything.' Vivian and Patricia were taken to the police station, where two other cousins, Alex Alves Pereira and Alessandro Pereira, were already waiting. ‌ Patricia remembered: 'Alex was really agitated. He kept saying, 'They f***ed up, they f***ed up'. He'd already joined the dots, I thought he had been arrested. They took us to a room and sat us down around a table. 'My English wasn't great and I didn't understand a lot of what they were saying. I only understood the last part – 'He is dead'. Still, I didn't think I'd heard right. 'I turned round to one of the others and he took my hand. His hand was freezing. He told me Jean was the Brazilian who had been shot dead. I went into total despair. Everyone was crying and screaming.' ‌ They were then taken to the morgue to identify Jean Charles' body. Patricia recalled: 'He was already arranged and dressed up. That's when I became ill and fainted. The next thing I remember is me sitting on a sofa with a policewoman trying to calm me down. 'I later heard that Alex and Vivian barged into the room and grabbed Jean's body. So it was very tense.' ‌ The family pursued fruitless legal action and no officers were charged, although the Met was found guilty of health and safety failures. Patricia added: 'For months I lived in shock. I wasn't able to hear a police siren without shaking. I'd get scared whenever I see policemen on the street. Even today when I'm on the tube, I'm constantly thinking about how I should escape if anything happens. 'For the first years, I thought about Jean every day and I would cry every day. This year has brought back a lot of the trauma and painful memories.' ‌ Vivian, now married with a daughter, Luna, says: 'I was just 22 and had been in the UK three months when Jean died. I was just a countryside girl and he was my safety, so when I lost him my ground went from under me. My whole world fell apart. 'I didn't really have time to grieve because we had to deal with all the bureaucracy, the polemic and the injustice. I don't know how I survived.' She says she now wants to remember the way Jean lived his life, not the way he died. ‌ 'He was such a happy person, an extrovert who would laugh and joke and got on with everyone. He was a dreamer. He wanted to make the best use of his life but above all he wanted to help people and make his family proud. 'I remember him all the time but especially at times when I wished he were still here, like when my daughter was born. He still appears in my dreams, the Jean we loved and knew so well. He'll never be forgotten.'