Verdict in Floyd case sparks hope, inspiration for many activists abroad
Much still needed to be done to ‘reverse the tide’ of systemic racism that permeates lives of Black people
The guilty verdict in the trial over George Floyd’s death was not just celebrated in America. It signalled hope for those seeking racial justice and fighting police brutality on the other side of the Atlantic and beyond, where Black Lives Matter has also become a rallying cry.
But the fight is far from over, activists, victims’ families and others in Europe, South Africa and elsewhere said Wednesday.
A Minneapolis jury found expolice officer Derek Chauvin guilty Tuesday on all counts of murder and manslaughter in the May death of Floyd, whose final words, “I can’t breathe,” reverberated across the world.
“The name of George Floyd today brings this hope … of a country that listens to its people,” said Assa Traore, a leading voice among those in France denouncing alleged police brutality and urging racial justice for the nation’s large Black and North African population.
Traore, who spoke in an interview with The Associated Press, has been seeking justice since the 2016 death of her younger brother, who died in police custody after a chase. The death was not filmed and its cause has been fiercely disputed. Assa Traore led a massive Black Lives Matter protest in Paris following Floyd’s death last May.
Acclaimed British author Alex Wheatle, who grew up in a children’s care home and was jailed at 18 for taking part in the 1981 Brixton race riots, said the news brought hope at a time when the U.K. is still “in denial” about systemic racism.
“For decades there’s been a long struggle here trying to exact some kind of justice, and we’ve never been satisfied with that justice,” he told The Associated Press. “I just hope that this new attention really focuses the minds of those in charge in this country.”
Wheatle’s life story was recently dramatized in director Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology, about London’s West Indian community.
“What I’m most concerned about is the attitudes of the (police officers) up to this day,” he added, citing repeated cases of Black youths being targeted in stop-and-search operations.
The UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, said governments need to rethink policing practices. Floyd’s death emphasizes just how much must still be done “to reverse the tide of systemic racism that permeates the lives of people of African descent,” she said. “The fight for justice goes on.”
The verdict in the Chauvin trial has special resonance in postapartheid South Africa.
“Despite the end of apartheid nearly three decades ago, we are still working to establish a truly non-racial justice system,” said William Gumede, chair of the Democracy Works Foundation promoting good governance in Africa.
The verdict “will inspire South Africans to press for similar accountability here,” he added.
“The … policing and justice system, is still rigged against those who are Black and poor,” said Judith February, a lawyer and board member of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
The verdict gives new strength to demands for equality before the law and in the everyday lives of the increasingly racially diverse societies of Europe, where minorities, even second and third generation nationals, still struggle for respect.