The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, was the straw that finally broke Black America’s back. They collectively screamed, ‘Enough is enough!’ In the six years since Black Lives Matter, went from a hashtag to an International Movement, has anything really changed in the America of Donald Trump? For George Floyd, there’s an endless list of names you can replace his with. Breonna Taylor, Armaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Jamar Clark, Marcus Golden, Cordale Hardy, on and on it goes. So, when will the killing of black people actually matter and when will it stop?
Coronavirus: The other knee on Black America’s neck. George’s televised death coincided with a Coronavirus pandemic, that goes out of its way to devastate Black America. With African Americans only making up 14% of the population, one third of U.S. COVID19 deaths come from their community. Why is this? For a start Black Americans hold down dangerous frontline jobs. Then they go home to densely populated areas, as well as Health Care and Labour Systems that saw them being forced back to work, long before their white counterparts.
Reopening America and old wounds. While some Black Americans had little or no choice but return to work and risk their lives, other Americans chose to storm capitol buildings, armed with guns and rocket launchers, demanding the government reopen their states. But even the economic crisis has hit black America hard, with 1 in 6 losing their jobs as a direct consequence of the pandemic. All these factors add up to an extremely combustible America. Put that next to a tinderbox of a President, whose loyalties clearly lie with those who killed George and BOOM!
From Michael to George. What’s changed? Six years ago, an unarmed black man named Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Mirroring the circumstances of George Floyd’s death, peaceful protests erupted into burning and looting. Curfews were imposed and riot squads mobilised. Ten days of riots followed, where ‘black lives matter’ became a battle cry. Today there’s possibly more to protest about besides the injustice of police brutality. There’s their orange cheerleader in the White House and a pandemic that’s either snuffing out their lives or taking away their livelihoods.
6 years of protests? The racial problem in America isn’t going away anytime soon. In the six years since Michael Brown was killed, protests haven’t really stopped because police killings have never ceased. Since then over 6,000 deaths have occurred, with virtually 0% resulting in the officers being charged. Few of these deaths come under public scrutiny like George’s. Traumatising a nation, live on the news. The real question shouldn’t be why did this happen but how can an atrocity take place before our eyes?
1968 and all that. In 1968, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, was followed by riots that left more than 50 dead. A government Commission was sanctioned to find out how to prevent similar riots in the future. Their findings were revealing to say the least, ‘conscious and unconscious white supremacy was leading to systemic inequality. Which created ‘a destructive environment’. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it and white society condones it’. Investigating racial inequality and ignoring the solutions is something America is good at. Let’s hope this time will be different.
Not all whites are supremacists! This time around things might be different. Observers witnessed many white faces at protests for George Floyd in Washington DC. There’s real hope that 2020 might be a turning point. Diversity within the protesters is growing, with black, white and everything in between being tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed and stunned with stun grenades. Some whites even stood in the frontline, knowing they'd be less likely to be hurt by the police. How’s that for white privilege?
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