What if George Floyd Hadn’t Died?
A light was shined on the violence police enact against Black Americans, but what if it hadn’t been?
George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin. We all saw it. Many of us were appalled by it. Many of us couldn’t understand why the white policeman didn’t remove his knee from the completely subdued Black man? Many of us had heard about police violence against Black people.
Black Americans have to live with it, but many white Americans didn’t believe it — they’re exaggerating, I have heard people say.
A lot of us white people would hear the occasions of Black people dying while in police custody, and, well, because we are not Black it often did not really register; or, perhaps after a run through YouTube videos showing the aftermath of the “accidental” deaths, some rage would be provoked — but how “what can I do anyway,” the collective white response has been?
Nevertheless, little by little, those of us not forced to regard those dangers as parts of our lives in America, but sensitive enough to ask what the hell was going on, were beginning to get a picture of a different form of policing for Black people. We consider the policeman to be a person whose motto is to “serve and protect.” Black Americans, I imagine because I…
