The US and the “race question” between COVID-19 and the “boogaloo” challenge

The protests and violence of the last weeks contributed to bringing the domestic and international attention back to the race question today existing in the United States. Although often blamed on the current administration (which always expressed a poor interest in all race-related issues), the problem has deeper roots, connecting to the country's history and the socio-economic transformations that the country has witnessed since the late Seventies. The impact of COVID-19 exacerbated the mix of problems that lays behind the race question, catalyzing a discontent that does not only affect the Afro-American population and canalizing it in different and sometimes violent forms. The most important question regards the possible political consequences of this situation. On the one hand, the black vote is becoming more and more important and, for this reason, is more and more courted by both Democrats and Republicans. On the other hand, today's violence strengthens -- in the mainstream electorate -- a will for law and order that in November elections could work in favor of the incumbent President, apparently ready to exploit this strategy to boost his approval rates.