From powerful to poignant, witty to angry, these signs highlight the varying emotions of people protesting against racism
Across the globe, millions of people are taking to the streets to protest against racism. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which campaigns against violence and systemic racism towards black people, returned to headlines when George Floyd, a 46-year-old black Minnesotan, died on May 26th in Minneapolis after a white police officer named Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes as he lay handcuffed, face down on the ground.
‘I can’t breathe…please stop,’ were his last words but the police officer continued to choke him until he lost consciousness. He died in hospital an hour later. The officer and three colleagues involved in Floyd’s arrest have all been charged. In America, a black person is three times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a white person according to the Mapping Police Violence research collaborative, with one in 1000 US black men expected to die at the hands of the police.
The movements has also shone a spotlight on other unanswered deaths of the black community. Breonna Taylor was a key worker, an emergency room technician who dreamed of being a nurse. On March 13th three plainclothes police officers entered her home using a no-knock warrant. Thinking it was a home invasion Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker (a licensed gun owner), shot at one of the police officers hitting him in the leg; the police retaliated with 20 rounds. Taylor was shot eight times – not one of the officers have been charged to date.
The Black Lives Matter demonstrations have continued for nearly three weeks, and spread across the entire world. From powerful to poignant, witty to angry, these signs highlight the varying emotions of people united by grief and desire for change.
