George Floyd was laid to rest in his hometown of Houston with emotional cries of, “He’ll change the world”. In death, he has definitely changed perceptions and prejudices within the United States of America, going by the groundswell of empathy for the blacks.
The horrendous killing by a white policeman and Tuesday’s funeral do form a defining chapter in the country’s racist narrative. The eulogies honoured him as a father, brother, athlete and mentor, whose death sparked a global reckoning over police brutality and racial prejudice, not to forget Donald Trump’s remarkable insensitivity.
Floyd has been buried next to his mother, whom he called out for as he lay dying with a police officer’s knee on his neck in Minnesota last month. He will be remembered for a long while yet as will the terminal cry, “I can’t breathe.” He will be remembered almost certainly after the votes in the November 2020 elections are counted. Whoever steps into the White House next January, will succeed to a depleted inheritance not the least because the US presidency has been undermined as seldom before.
As a solemn tribute, radio stations observed moments of silence. City officials paid tribute on social media. In New York, traders at the stock exchange paused for eight minutes and 46 seconds to mark the length of time the Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was filmed kneeling on Floyd, impervious to the man’s pleas for breath and mercy. Spiritually grounded, Floyd was an activist who moved people with his words. His life mattered, and black lives do matter whatever the likes of Mr Trump might aver. Protesters have claimed some victories ~ charges against the four police officers at the scene of Floyd’s killing, and a “high bail” for Derek Chauvin, the officer who kneeled on his neck.
As often as not, racist killings have been tacitly condoned. Alongside Floyd’s name, demonstrators across the country shouted the names of their own who had been killed by law enforcement officers, the overwhelming majority of whom kept their jobs and never faced criminal charges. The officers who shot and killed 26-yearold Breonna Taylor as she slept in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment in March have not been charged. The past weeks of unrest devolved into instances of looting and destruction that prompted some jurisdictions to impose unprecedented curfews and call in the National Guard for support.
But the protesters, from coast to coast, have by and large been peaceful. Calls to defund police departments have led to some action by local leaders around the country, a change from recent history. In Minneapolis, the city council secured a vetoproof majority in favour of dismantling the entire troubled police force. Beyond the state’s boundaries, however, the Trump regime has been rather ineffectual. Neither the black nor the white will forgive and forget this tragedy. As Joe Biden said after the funeral, “Now is the time for racial justice. Because when there is justice for George Floyd, we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America.”