The brutal death of George Floyd and the protests it has sparked have had remarkable effects in communities all over the world. Statues glorifying slavers have been removed in the US and UK, and murals supporting Black Lives Matter have spread across the globe.
Sadly, the death of Black people at the hands of the police isn’t a new phenomenon, so what precipitated this response now? Part of the answer lies in timing, with both police violence and Covid-related mortality heavily shaped by race. “We are not conflating these separate incidences,” as the Black and Asian Counselling Psychology Group puts it, “but highlight them together to demonstrate how racism permeates and impacts Black lives.”
Whilst timing can explain some of this response, another reason is timeless: it is psychological. The image of a helpless individual being suffocated in a chokehold or dying with a policeman’s knee on his neck touches on something we can all empathise with in these times, even if we haven’t been subject to racist violence: the feeling of being powerless against the actions of those we entrust with our safety and protection, and a sense of being trapped.
