The city of Paris is finding itself in a state of chaos since news broke of a black man assaulted by French police two weeks ago.

Recounting the incident, Théo, a 22-year-old man said he left his house Thursday and found himself in the middle of a police identity check. These check are used to target drug dealers.

What proceeded was not a standard routine check, Théo’s pants were pulled down and he was sexually assaulted with a truncheon. He was repeatedly beaten on the head and around his genital area; the police also sprayed tear gas around his head and mouth.

Since that time he has undergone emergency surgery for his injuries and has been declared unfit for work for 60 days. Théo is still being hospitalized.

The four police officers involved have all been suspended and an investigation is underway. One has been placed under formal investigation for suspected rape and three others for unnecessary use of force. All deny wrongdoing.

French police are often accused of using excessive force especially against black and minority ethnic suspects.

Photo: French President Francois Hollande visiting Théo in hospital.

Protests have since erupted in Paris with property being destroyed and roads being blocked, prompting Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the education minister to appeal for calm, saying: “Young people’s emotion over the Théo affair is understandable, but we must let justice take its course.” Violence is “unacceptable.”

However, the movement is being sustained across the country, with school protests continuing to happen in a move of solidarity.

“The climate in France is becoming more and more worrying,” Independent Counter-Struggle Movement, a youth group that organized the protest on Facebook, said in a statement. “A great mobilization of youth is more than necessary to counter the security and racist climate.”

The Melanoid people who identify with being Dominican have demanded that their Haitian Brothers and Sisters leave the Dominican Republic. It’s extremely unfortunate, considering that their fallout has a long history of them being manipulated by the white supremacist colonists on both sides (the French for Haiti and the Spanish for the Dominican Republic). As we witnessed yet another view of the Black experience, we must be mindful of just how diverse it is. The circumstances may vary, yet the fundamental causes are the same.

From the super wealthy Europeans who manipulate conflicts among the native Africans as they lust for the natural resources of the mother continent, to the eradication of Melanoid people in Australia, the Black experience is much like the traditional quilts that our mothers and grandmothers would create in generations past: colorful, elaborate in its composition, yet a body of work that has been passed down to act as a narrative to our experience.

Oftentimes, the Black experience is limited to that of the Melanoid people who have resided in Urban America since the Great Migration of the early 1900s. We’re all too familiar with the Black experience as it pertains to “the hood”, yet there are countless Melanoid people in rural and suburban America alone who experience their own version of “Black plight”. The geographic isolation of these Brothers and Sisters is enough to pose a challenge in itself, although it is neither greater–nor or worse–than the Black experience of “the hood”.

The Black experience in Europe is a prime example. Much has been said of the day-to-day dealings of Melanoid people in places such as the U.K. and France, yet the underlying issue remains that they too, experience–and often find ways to counter–racism/white supremacy “across the pond”. An interesting sector of the diverse Black experience on a global scale involves the masses of Melanoid folks who have migrated to Asian countries such as Japan, where the Black experience takes on a life of its own.

Despite our language barriers, the food we eat, or the geographical regions we live in, a Black experience in one area is only represents the patch in the quilt that encompasses the entire Black experience…and this is the ONLY “diversity” we should concern ourselves with at this point in time.