Five years since the George Floyd’s death, columnist Darren Lewis says the global reckoning in the days, weeks and months after his death has either ebbed away or been snuffed out
George Floyd should be alive today. It should never have taken his death five years ago to spark a movement to combat racial inequality.
It should never have been the case that former police officer Derek Chauvin could feel empowered and entitled enough to keep his knee on Floyd’s neck for nine-and-a-half minutes, despite a passerby recording the killing.
Floyd’s death was simply the latest in a long line of preventable tragedies – on both sides of the Atlantic – at the hands of individuals whose contempt for Black lives had been well documented.
But it is most definitely the case that the global reckoning in the days, weeks and months after his death has either ebbed away or been snuffed out.
If you’re a company that jumped on the performative bandwagon back then, that means you.
If you’re an organisation that posted black squares and recruited staff back then, only to shuffle them out the side door, that means you.
If your firm ended its diversity scheme, eased out your Diversity Officer and marginalised your Black and Brown staff into oblivion, that means you.
If you believe pointing out these truths is race-baiting – the term thrown around when facts make the recipients uncomfortable – that means you.
In some companies, the outward-facing optics changed in terms of staff but the decision-makers remained the same. In other areas the charade stopped within a year of Floyd’s passing.
Since then, here and Stateside, the empire has struck back.
Type Floyd’s name into the social media platform X and the racism you will discover is indicative of where we are right now.
Outright lies, digital misrepresentations and the demonisation of immigrants – in some sections of the mainstream media too – are part of a masterplan to spread fear by those who wish to divide us. In the US since the change of government, plans for police reform have been dropped. Moves to document the uncomfortable parts of history have been scrapped.
The Justice Department has been accused of trying to “minimise and roll back the incremental progress” made after Floyd was killed. There is even a movement to discredit him and push for a Chauvin pardon.
Earlier this month here, the Prime Minister and Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, unashamedly delivered a speech loaded with far-right rhetoric.
It was a far cry from five years ago when, as opposition leader, he took a knee in solidarity with the fight for racial justice.
We haven’t just gone back to square one, we are way further back than that.
Why? Because of the wave of populism sweeping the West.
Because of the systematic digital attempts to convince many that equality will mean they are losing something.
Moves remain ongoing to fool people into believing they are under threat from those who simply want to exist.
But there are reasons, however small, to keep going. Floyd’s passing sparked a global outpouring of emotion and protest not seen before.
Allies of all races within our friendship groups remain. Politicians have stood firm on business, sacrificing power for principle.
And, there are many within the media industry who, within the last five years, have worked on building platforms perfectly placed to lead the changes democratising news and sport.
The fight against racism isn’t and never will be a slogan. And, thankfully, there are people of all races in it for the long haul.