Re Richard Wolffe’s article (Trump has reached the ‘mad emperor’ stage, and it’s terrifying to behold, 2 June), is the media and public characterisation of Donald Trump symptomatic of the systemic (and often unconscious) racism that this week’s protests challenge? We mock him and describe him as a toddler, a fool. But his actions are those of a fascist and would-be dictator – he spreads misinformation and wants to shut down media dissent; he encourages violence against those who disagree and threatens his citizens with the military; and he shows every sign of being a white supremacist.

The Republican party has been overly engaged for years in disenfranchising black voters. And yet we describe him as “not able” to bring calm, to unite the nation. Would we be so generous to an African leader behaving in the same way? Would we still describe their country as a democracy? “In five months, the good people can end both his hateful words and their own appalling silence,” says Wolffe. Are we so sure?Clare SheffieldWest Bridgford, Nottinghamshire

• The killing of African American George Floyd (Angry Donald Trump calls on governors to ‘dominate’ George Floyd protests, 1 June) raises the question of institutional racism in America. Recent research based upon the latest WHO data and US National Vital Statistics found some remarkable facts. The US has the highest rate of child mortality across 21 western countries, and for every white child dying, 2.1 African American children die. Across all age groups African American death rates are 20% higher than average US mortality. Moreover, the US has the widest income inequality between the top and bottom 10% of its population, according to the World Bank.

The starkest statistic is for “legal intervention” deaths – state executions or police killings. Nationally the rate is two per million, but for African American men it’s five per million.

In a study in a major British journal, we showed that the US health system, based upon mortality and money spent on health, is the most ineffective and inefficient health service in the west, but it was turned down by two US journals as being “too political”. Until America looks at itself and sees the gap between Lincoln idealism and African American reality, little will change.Prof Colin PritchardBournemouth University

• Looking at the pictures of police facing demonstrators in the US (As the George Floyd protests continue, let’s be clear where the violence is coming from, 1 June), I notice that they at least have no shortage of personal protective equipment.Colwyn LeeSwarkestone, Derbyshire

• Dan Hancox (The power of crowds, 2 June) argues that opportunities to gather freely have been “greatly diminished” since the 1990s. Certainly governments have sought to restrict the right to protest, as they invariably do. Yet 2003 saw the biggest ever protest in British history against the Iraq war, and in the last couple of years London has seen massive protests around a “people’s vote” on EU membership, and just last year the impressive protests of Extinction Rebellion.

Current worldwide protests against the US police killing of George Floyd are a reminder that the power of the crowd remains. Contrary to Hancox’s perspective, I’d suggest that this is on the increase. People’s expectations that elected representatives will do things for them has diminished considerably since the watershed year of 1968. If something needs doing, people now tend to think of doing it for themselves, and that often means taking to the streets, whether authority likes it or not.Keith FlettTottenham, London

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