Grief and discontent in Minneapolis shakes Nelson man
A Nelson man living in Minneapolis says George Floyd’s death was ‘‘an injustice so utterly blatant’’ it had shaken his tightknit community to the core.
Nigel Harte has been living in Minnesota in the United States Midwest since 2017.
He went to Nelson College, worked in the real estate industry and had a family in Nelson, which he still thinks of as home. In 2016, while working as a tour coach driver between Christchurch and Queenstown, he met an American woman, Cynthia, who would become his wife.
The pair were married on the banks of the Mississippi River in 2017 and Harte said since moving to the States three years ago, his experience of Minneapolitans was that they were kind, friendly and welcoming.
‘‘There appears to be a strong sense, within Minnesota, of a more inclusive community. The largest Somali population outside Somalia lives here along with a large Mung population who originate from the hills and mountains of Vietnam.’’
But the circumstances of Floyd’s death had shaken those in his predominantly white neighbourhood ‘‘to the core’’, not because they feared the violence and rioting but because the inequality within their community had been laid bare.
Floyd died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck, ignoring the African American man’s pleas that he couldn’t breathe.
His death has sparked protests and riots across the United States and calls for an end to racial injustice.
Harte said the demonstrations that had erupted over the past 12 days, in his opinion, came from a number of situations all feeding into ‘‘huge discontent right throughout the community’’.
It was an ‘‘understandable outpouring of grief and impotence’’.
He hadn’t been concerned for his safety, but had felt some trepidation about the looting, violence and rioting taking place in business districts a few kilometres from his home.
Harte said people across
America’s 50 states held an extreme range of opinions, ideologies and prejudices, which meant some claimed the police officer did nothing wrong when he knelt on Floyd’s neck, while others were rioting in the streets over it.
He said he couldn’t have imagined living through the sort of unrest now going on in the US.
‘‘Former police chiefs and other authority figures have aired concerns about systemic prejudice within the police organisation and their inability to address any of these issues,’’ Harte said.
‘‘If you put into the mix the different and polarising personalities within some of the organisations, it is easy to see the result
of a very toxic environment.’’
On Tuesday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced an investigation into the policies and procedures of the police force to determine whether it has engaged in discriminatory practices toward people of colour in the past ten years.
Harte said he had never encountered racism, so deepseated and intergenerational, until he lived in the United States.
‘‘This pain in the black community has been here for 400 years, this will not be fixed tomorrow or next week, it requires a shift in attitudes and culture.
‘‘An embracing of our differences, which seems to be a really hard thing here.’’