George Floyd incident has left us all deeply disturbed and questioning ourselves “is this the age and time we are living in?” Amidst this Covid-19 pandemic, his death is one of the bitter happenings of 2020. The atrocity that happened behind the mask of white privilege is purely inhuman. The anxiety, fear, and oppression he must have felt in his last few minutes are too terrible to even imagine. As cruel as it is, apparently this is not a solitary incident.
If you are still not aware, here’s what happened.
George Floyd, an African American, died an unfair death in the hands of a white cop. The cop pinned him to the ground and kneeled on his neck for over 7 minutes despite him gasping for air and saying “I can’t breathe”. Soon he lost consciousness and died.
It began with George being arrested for using a counterfeit 20$ bill at a local deli. Four cops who were involved were fired. It was claimed by the police that Floyd physically restrained the arrest but it appears to be false according to the video footage shot by passer-by.
This incident has sparked protests all over USA.
Acts of racism has been growing all over the globe, not just America. And it is high time people voice their opinions whenever incidents as such happen. Actually not just when things like this happen but we need to re-establish firm right opinions into the society every time we get a chance to. Big or small.
Don’t say there’s nothing you can do about it as it happened somewhere far and to someone else. That reminds me of this quote I’ve seen today.
This is what you can do about this situation.
Start by educating yourself.
What’s been happening around you? Commonly, when disturbing incidents happen we ignore it and stay silent. Reason might be anything, hesitation to talk or preference to not have a discomfited mind. But this can’t be happening and this only stops when you are educated about it.
Have conversations and educate your community.
Educating oneself isn’t just enough when we are aiming to achieve something as big as erasing racism. You should also proactively educate your people.
You can donate.
On Instagram you can follow these pages to know more about donations and petitions.
These are some of the places where you can donate.
Sign a petition.
@COLOROFCHANGE is a petition to charge the officers who killed George Floyd. Although this cannot bring back the lost life, we ought to do everything we can to show our disapproval and disgust towards such acts.
Stand up to RACIST JOKES & ACTS.
“Racism is taught, not born with it”. I couldn’t agree with this more, There are many racist jokes and acts that go around and we laugh it off and stay quiet. Though what should be done is standing up against it and condemn publicly. There’s no shame in condemning what is wrong. Only the opposite.
Finally, learn to react in the moment. Right when it is happening. If one of the passer-by tried to stop it instead of making video footage of the incident, maybe things wouldn’t have gone so out of hands. Maybe one would be outnumbered by a bunch of policemen and it is understandable too to hesitate. But if a group of civilians had protested it right then, an innocent life wouldn’t have been lost today.
Together we are strong. Together!!
Until next time,
Nikki.