George Floyd

A brief and simple analysis of the effect of George Floyd's death on race relations (or lack thereof).

By brionyPublished 4 years ago • 2 min read

This is not a discussion about George Floyd. I've used the title in the same way it is being used everywhere: to draw attention to race relations.

White shock adds nothing to the movement. It shouldn't have taken an explicit video for people to realise they are privileged and implicitly oppressive. White complacency is the root of all this and the inability to recognise Black experience out of the context of shocking police brutality is rude. It isn't just George Floyd who couldn't breathe. The movement is not new. The hurt is not new. The fear is not new. We should shout their names, but we should also refuse to only fixate on incidents that simply reflect a continued and relentless experience.

'Me and White Supremacy' is sold out on Amazon. 'Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race' came out in 2018, and is only now getting the attention it deserves. It explains why Black Lives Matter so well, but it is tiring that it's taken yet another death for white people to agree to investment in this. If only the microphones had been handed over earlier. All it does it reflect how much of an selective issue it has been thus far, and doesn't actually provide any promise that as white lives continue, Black lives will matter any more than they did when George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet were killed in the same week.

How long does white activism in the name of race relations continue? The only thing deeply upsetting about George Floyd for so many white people is seeing an explicit video. It's shocking, it's painful. But for the privileged, shock will wear off; this too shall pass. But race relations cannot be a fad. Signing a petition will not remove the racial bias from your child's friendship groups. Sharing some art on your carefully curated Instagram feed will not change the fact that your university place may only be yours because you are a mediocre white woman, and not an exceptional Black woman. Something's gotta give.

What continues to startle and anger me is the selective response to racism from white people - the non-racist approach rather than anti-racist. The implication that oppressive relations between races could possibly exclude the responsibility of an entire race. That choice, between non or anti, is a sign of privilege. The ability to dip in and out of whichever hashtags you subscribe to, is a sign of privilege. The option to choose to respond to the shock from such news, is a sign of privilege. Pacifism is tiring, if it is not followed by change. Whose role is it, if not the oppressor's, to stop this?

White responsibility is what created this situation, and it cannot be dropped now. Interchanging responsibility with guilt, though, is ignorance. The guilt complex is not useful, but even the suggestion of white guilt is silence. It is complacency. It is a suggestion that the racism, the oppression, is over. It isn't the time to feel guilty: there cannot be remorse for something still happening. There isn't time to stop and feel bad, when the knee is still on the neck. It's a time for action and it's a time for combating the fruitlessness of hope.

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briony

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