George Floyd died on May 26 at the knee of a Minneapolis Police Department officer whose casualness as life slowly went out of a writhing Floyd must discomfit any human. This happened while we were still processing the news of the death of Ahmaud Arbery at the hands of a father-son duo in Brunswick, Ga., earlier in the year. The news of both deaths is attracting the usual response of outrage and shock both in the country and abroad. Floyd’s death, in particular, has witnessed in its aftermath violent protests across the land.
Yet, I am convinced, a moment’s reflection would make us realize that these deaths are only the latest in a pattern that needs merely to be acknowledged to call for a pause and some deeper thinking about how to end it.
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Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò is a Professor of Africana Studies at Cornell University. Comments can be sent to opinion@cornellsun.com. Guest Room runs periodically this summer.
