Racism, hate surface in defacing of Floyd statue
Hate has a face.
It is not the face that embodies this hostility; it’s what happened to the face — an attack that reflects the racism afflicting this nation.
A vandal recently splattered gray paint on the statue of George Floyd in New York City, a 10-foot bronze of his face unveiled only three days before.
The bust, located in Union Square, was part of an installation that included statues of Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights leader who died last summer, and Breonna Taylor, killed by police in 2020. All three people were African American.
“I was pulling by, and when I saw the paint, I instantly got emotional,” Isaiah Burke, who traveled from Virginia to see the artwork, told reporters. “It’s a representation of the country we live in. It’s racism, it’s hatred, ignorance, all boiled into one.”
Burke described a toxic stew — a poison that lingers. Murdered in life, ravaged in death, Floyd continues to be victimized. And yet he could have become, in death, an instrument for healing.
A naïve hope, perhaps, but it seemed possible. Relatives expressed their grief at his funeral, a pain that touched millions throughout the country and world. But beyond the shroud of sorrow, they spoke of the love and forgiveness that counters hate and bitterness.
“I thank God for y’all showing love to my brother,” Terrence Floyd, his brother, said at the funeral. “At the end of the day, my brother’s gone, but the Floyd name still lives on.”
The words were wise and poignant, reflecting a resiliency as profound as his heartache. It was one of those moments, quiet but inspiring, that seem to topple all the walls around us. Again, it seemed possible
But no. The words were inspiring, but inspiration takes different forms, and what is a call for peace to some is a call for hate to others. The hostility that killed Floyd lives on.
Death should be a release from all earthly burdens, but after his murder by a police officer on May 25, 2020, Floyd continues to be victimized, his bronze visage as vulnerable as he had been. The vandalism, as ugly as it was confounding, sparked an unanswerable question: What is happening to us?
“This is what we deal with every day,” John Caphert, who is Black, told the Gothamist, an online news source in New York, after viewing the artwork in Union Square.
How do we battle the hostility gripping this country? One answer is strenuous investigations into these hate crimes, followed by even more strenuous prosecutions.
But is that enough?
You can punish wrongdoing, but you cannot legislate morality. And you cannot grab the nation by its collective shoulders, screaming, like a frustrated parent, “Stop this insanity!” If only.
Hate crimes surged almost 20 percent during the Trump administration, according to an FBI report. The study was disturbing, and the most chilling statistic was the spike in hate-motivated murders, the highest in 28 years. Most were committed by white supremacists.
The defacing of the Floyd statue represents this ignoble moment in America.
It is heartbreaking. The consolation, if there is any, is comforting, and it is this: The haters do not represent us. They yell and curse and badger, but a few kind words can smother the cacophony, just as they did during the funeral of a man whose only crime was his skin color — George Floyd.