Policing as Un‐Breathing and Geographies of Black Breathing in Europe

Abstract The nexus of racism and policing has gained much political attention in Europe since the 2020 mass protests that followed the uprisings after the murder of George Floyd in the US. While many protestors signalled solidarity with policed subjects in the US, they also emphasised the role of state violence “at home”. This paper engages with the relation between policing and state racism in contemporary continental Europe by employing breathing as a method for the analysis of policing as well as of black geographies. I draw on Frantz Fanon's analysis of “combat breathing” as well as on long‐term research with black and anti‐racist movements in Germany, France, and Switzerland to discuss the current conjuncture of state racism and policing. The first section analyses the relation between policing, racism, and capitalism. I then discuss contemporary forms of policing in Europe, what I call “un‐breathing”. The final section explores resistance to policing and how geographies of black breathing are shaped by activists as part of transnational and multi‐racial abolitionist politics.