I have encountered this “American social issues transplanted” hand waving a lot in Europe. For example, I know a lot of Swedes who say this about a bunch of casually racist stuff (proclaiming Sweden to be very anti-racist). Meanwhile up north you see a lot of Classic American cars which are often casually emblazoned with Confederate flags and even displayed in proximity to Nazi memorabilia. Down south you have a rising right-wing party support fuelled by fear of immigrants from Africa/Middle East (eg. The non-white ones).
I understand you’re trying to educate yourself and that’s great, don’t take this as dunking on you more, as I feel like you’re in the smart minority by trying to learn and reason. It just really bugs me when I hear people say it’s a US problem. A lot of Europe is holding a lot of racist views (and in a lot of cases, horrific colonial history) and then turn around to say things like “why are my football players kneeling, BLM is an American issue”.
Freedom of speech. Except the speech we don’t like.