George Floyd & Black Lives Matter: An International Human Rights Movement
By: Jordan Grandy
Photo via Business Insider
Echoing the sentiment of scholars, political commentators, and even late-night talk show host – “Something about this feels different”. The outburst of protest that has followed the public murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in the United States after a police officer, Derek Chauvin, was caught on camera pressing his knee into the neck of the victim for 8 minutes and 46 seconds as Mr. Floyd begged for his life and three of his colleagues watched as they dismissed pleads from the crowd to help Mr. Floyd, has transformed from protest in all 50 states in the U.S into an international movement for oppressed, disenfranchised, and silenced voices all over the world. From the streets of London, England to Paris, France all the way to Berlin, Germany, protestors stand in solidarity with the protestors across the United States as they confront police forces in riot gear and hold up signs declaring “Black Lives Matter”.
George Floyd did not die in vain; George Perry Floyd II has effectively become a martyr for a larger movement, a symbol of oppression and the disregard of black and brown bodies across the globe. The symbolism of a white man pressing his knee on to the neck of a black man with the full weight of his body as he wears a badge was not lost on historically oppressed populations around the world. Protestors in France are not just standing in solidarity with Black Americans, but they also are protesting the death of Adama Traore in an interaction with the police that turned deadly for Adama. In Toronto, Canada they are also protesting the tragic death of Regis Korchinski-Pacquet after her interaction with the police ended with her falling from her apartment balcony. In Australia, they are not only standing in solidarity with the George Floyd protest, but there is also a call for Australia to revisit how they treat their indigenous population. In Nigeria, protestors surround the U.S embassy to proclaim that Black bodies everywhere matter, and the President of Ghana tweets a similar statement. In Syria, a country plagued by the destructive forces of their own Civil War for nearly 10 years now, an artist manages to paint a mural of Mr.Floyd amongst the rubble to stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, Syrian citizens gassed in air raids, and the oppressed all over the world.
The death of Mr. Floyd has acted as a turning point in conversations about race relations in the United States and a repudiation of the mistreatment, disenfranchisement, and silencing of the lesser heard voices throughout world history. Black American’s demands for their voices to be heard and taken seriously, and for racial injustices to be corrected, has turned into, has been, and is an international human rights issue. In a recent update on its demands, the NAACP emphasizes that “police brutality, specifically against the Black community, is not only a civil rights issue but also a human rights issue” and calls on the United Nations to recognize and strongly condemn the human rights abuses of Black Americans at the hands of the police by imposing sanctions on the United States if necessary. The international human rights group Amnesty International join the NAACP in their call to condemn police brutality, discrimination, and human rights abuses in the wake of a series of deadly interactions between the police and Black Americans, that of which most recently includes the death of Breonna Taylor who was shot 8 times by police as she was sleeping in her home.
Unfortunately, these calls to condemn the human rights violations of the United States may fall onto deaf ears. The inconvenient truth is, the U.S and most of the developed Western World, was built on 400+ years of slavery. The institution that was slavery, is baked into the structure and society of the countries that prospered on it to this day and shows its head in what they call Systematic or Institutional Racism. The fight against Systematic Racism is what Black Lives Matter, condemnation of police brutality, and the George Floyd protest are all about. If history has anything to say about it, powerful countries built off the backs of oppressed populations rarely show remorse or forgiveness for their mistreatment of those population. The United States, especially, does not apologize. In 2018, the U.S officially withdrew their membership from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) amidst controversy of their treatment of immigrants at the Mexican-U.S border as they split-up families and detained children in camps, and pleads for reparations for African-Americans have been stifled since the end of the American Civil War.
The United States is not new to the fight for racial justice. After what seemed like a big win with the Civil Rights Movements and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that followed, race based socioeconomic inequalities and police brutality on Black Americans has stood the test of time fight after fight and riot after riot. This time around…something about this feels different. The George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protest has penetrated every aspect of American society. From music, to sports, to media, it has prompted Americans to have serious discussions on race relations in the country. As sweeping police reforms are proposed in U.S congress and military bases named after confederate generals are called to be renamed, we seem to be making real progress. Although, even in the midst of all that, there are still those who insist that Systematic Racism is not a problem in U.S law enforcement and would rather have these important conversations muted. Those include figures like the National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien and U.S Attorney General William Barr.
When you have a country that attempts to mute the voices and legitimate concerns of its people and denies systemic problems that plague a historically oppressed population, a simple local peaceful protest can turn into a national crisis that leads to an international movement for change. This is why protest over the murder of George Floyd at the hands of U.S police officers has turned into an international movement for human rights. Although all 4 cops were charged, the protest for Mr. Floyd has went beyond that. As the statue of a prolific slave trader Edward Colston gets torn down in Bristol, England, a statue of George Washington gets beheaded in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A, and confederate monuments across the Southern U.S gets torn down, the movement for Black Lives in America has shown the rest of the world that it is up to the people to write their stories and make their voices heard. This will be the legacy of George Perry Floyd II’s death.
