What his death has come to symbolise,as echoed by the many protests across the world,is the tension that continues to plague humanity since the invention of the concept of race. His death is a reminder that we still have work to do.
My teenage sister,and many young people her age,attended the Black Lives Matter rallies held in Australia. Yet in this same country,around the same time,other young people her age re-enacted the act of the police kneeling on George Floyd’s neck.
You can guess what was the factor that differentiated these two vastly different reactions to the same event. These young people merely play out the divides that have coloured conversations on what the death of George Floyd should mean.
Thousands marched the streets of Melbourne last June to protest Indigenous deaths in custody and to stand in solidarity with George Floyd.Credit:Chris Hopkins
In that divide,some have sought to argue that George Floyd was no saint. That argument not only dehumanises him,it misunderstands the point of the Black Lives Matter movement. The retort,All Lives Matter,is an example of such misunderstanding:it assumes that the statement,Black Lives Matter,seeks to award a special status to black lives above all others.
Such a stand finds little support among the most prominent advocate for equality,Martin Luther King,who said,"We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
Nelson Mandela,at the opening of his defence in the Rivonia treason trial,spoke about fighting against both white domination and black domination.
The young Nelson Mandela in Xhosa tribal dress
And it was the cherished “ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities” that he was prepared to die for,if need be.
Dr King and Nelson Mandela,even in their fight against objectively racist systems,knew that we are stuck with each other and that,as James Baldwin said,relations between black and white,“like any other province of human experience,demand honesty and insight;they must be based on the assumption that there is one race and that we are all part of it”.
These statements should ease the fear I sense among certain people that individuals who campaign for racial equality are in fact seeking to replace one supremacy with another.
I have written explicitly about race in this piece. I did not want to. I even consider whether I should write anything at all.
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Knowing some would not see race as a factor in the George Floyd killing,I was,and am,afraid of being accused of making “everything about race”. Perhaps it is a fair criticism,but I am yet to find a way of shading my black skin in the mornings as one changes clothes.
I admit that conversations that touch on race are difficult,uncomfortable,and unwanted. But as much as I would prefer to not turn my mind to them,it is not a choice I think I have.
We do not choose our times,whether we like it or not,the only choice is how to face them.
From where I stand,this is what I have seen. And by telling you what I see,I hope you may get to see me,as human,a mother,a daughter,and sometimes,just like you,afraid.