Marama Davidson

George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis police was an utterly avoidable yet sadly predictable tragedy.

In that horrific video, we saw a beloved father killed by racism, systemic injustice and social inequity.

I watched George Floyd calling out to his mama while that cop had his racism clamped down on a black man’s neck. As a brown mother, I stand with black mothers across America.

The Green Party I co-lead, alongside many people throughout

Aotearoa, stands in solidarity with

George Floyd, and every other person of colour, needlessly killed under a system of police brutality under thinly-veiled white supremacy.

His death dominated mainstream media headlines and social media feeds. We were all, once again, confronted with the unacceptable reality that living as a person of colour in the United States is not only dangerous, but deadly.

But we cannot pretend this injustice exists only within the borders of the US. The plague of racial discrimination runs throughout the world, including here in Aotearoa New Zealand.

While we collectively grieve another victim of racist police brutality, we must work together to demand justice for people of colour facing the same discrimination all over the world.

We must listen to the voices of people of colour when they speak truth to the racism they experience. We must not dismiss the fears of the – predominantly brown – people who fear the police. Because much of this fear is based on experience.

In Aotearoa, Ma¯ ori experience more arrests, more prosecutions, longer jail sentences, more brutality and deaths, than Pa¯ keha¯ in similar circumstances.

We must not let George

We cannot pretend this injustice exists only within the borders of the US.