Two Years After George Floyd's Death, The Washington Post Just Killed Him Again.

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The date is May 25, 2020. We've been in quarantine for a few months, left only longing for a world outside of the ever-enclosing walls we've been stuck in. The simulation is broken. Time isn't real and quiet chaos is reigning.

We scroll through Twitter. It pops up. The Video.

The video of a Minneapolis police officer kneeling on a Black man's neck for over nine minutes.

The man, we soon learn, was George Floyd. A 46-year-old Black man who had used a fake $20 at a convenience store. Seventeen minutes after the police arrived on the scene Floyd was dead, his murder akin to a public lynching as it was committed in front of dozens of people. During the altercation, bystanders attempted to get the police officers to ease off of Floyd. After having no success, a few of the bystanders instead began to record what was going on. The goal of the videos being to make sure the officers were held accountable for the actual events of the day, as opposed to what they were sure to make up. And held accountable they were.

The video sparked a deep, long pent-up outrage in the Black community. A rage so forceful and so cultivated that, for what seemed like the first time ever, it poured over into the white community as well. Not just in America but all over the world. Everywhere you turned you stumbled upon protests. Read the signs. Heard the chants:

I can't breathe.

No justice, no peace.

Black Lives Matter.

Reported by New York Times as perhaps the largest movement in U.S history, Black Lives Matter shed light on a poorly shadowed foundation of America. The prosperity of our country at the expense of our people. Everyone took notice and began to course-correct. New laws took effect regarding policing policies and funding. Monuments of Confederate soldiers were torn down from parks and museums. Both collegiate and national football teams changed outdated and poorly stereotyped names or mascots. Even Sesame Street got in on the action, holding a town hall discussing racism in a way that was simplistic enough for children to understand.

And it all began with a video of a cop kneeling on George Floyd's neck for nine minutes.

Kneeling. On. George. Floyd's. Neck.

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So enters The Washington Post.

The date is May 23, 2022. Black lives still matter but not quite as loudly as they did two years ago. The BLM-driven advancements of the last two years have eased white guilt enough to allow it to slip back from the day-to-day, out of sight and out of mind. Our four walls aren't as tight as they once were. Balance has been (mostly) restored.

Still, we scroll through Twitter. Then it pops up. The Washington Post.

The fourth most circulated newspaper in America. Around 85 million digital visitors a month. 19 million Twitter followers. 69 Pulitzer Prizes…

Making faceless the face of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement.

And in turn, highlighting one of the most blatantly racist ideologies that exist today.

The Black Man.™

The Black Man™ is not one, but all.

A melding of every Brother into a stereotype-shaped mosaic, to be taken out and used on occasions deemed fit by those who created him.

To define the Black Man™ is to reach into the bloodied soil of our land and scavenge through centuries of racial injustices and imbalanced powers. He is neither good nor bad. Innocent or guilty. Abuser or victim.

He is whatever is needed of him when it is needed of him, by whoever needs it of him.

In this instance, the Washington Post's Black Man™ is an amalgamation of Duante Wright.

Botham Jean.

Philando Castile.

Alton Sterling.

Freddie Gray.

Eric Garner.

Akai Gurley.

Tamir Rice.

Michael Brown.

Omari Cryer.

Patrick Lyoya.

Irvin D. Moorer Charley.

Alhaji M. Sow.

Anthony Harden.

Antwan Gilmore.

And on…

and on….

And on.

With this tweet, the Black Man™ transformed into his needed self. A hunched mass dragged and disparaged, riddled with holes shaped like taxpayer bullets.

He became the confirmation of the bias regarding policing deaths that the article writer knows. And while it is a bias built heavily on factual events, it is one that does not nor will ever apply to George Floyd.

With this one sentence, the Washington Post put Floyd's death ahead of his life. They dehumanized him as clickbait.

Twitter users were quick to call out the tweet and the Washington Post swiftly removed it. 40 minutes later the replacement tweet went up:

"Tell the Post: How have things changed in your community since George Floyd's death?"

With an added tweet in the thread:

"We've deleted a previous tweet for this form that included language that was changed after publish."

No further mention of the mixup. No acknowledgment. No apology. Just a not-quite-quick-enough sweeping under the rug.

So today take a minute to remember George Floyd as a human instead of just a Black man.

It's more than the Washington Post could do.

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