Where are Floyd’s loved ones now? Before the fourth anniversary of her brother’s murder, Bridgett Floyd said, “I just want the world to know that my brother was somebody...He wasn’t just anybody…he is the somebody that is going to help everybody.” In that same vein, his daughter, Gianna, is executive producing a biopic titled “Daddy Changed the World.” But what has this change been?
Where’s the progress? President Biden used the anniversary to claim that the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is still underway — a reform that wouldn’t have saved Floyd’s life. Meanwhile, Cop Cities are still being built, police are still draining funding from social services, and reforms are being repealed.
How many more deaths have there been? Since 2020, police killed over 4,300 people. Victims like Frank Tyson, who repeatedly told officers “I can’t breathe” before his death this April, remind us of the system's increasing violence.
Did the protests accomplish anything? Still, despite increased state violence and empty symbolic wins, the George Floyd uprisings produced a historic, radicalizing cultural shift - from people learning about abolition to incorporating anti-police work in other intersecting human rights movements.
We aren’t yet living in the future we deserve. That Floyd deserved. But the uprisings weren’t for nothing. As we grow power in numbers and knowledge, how can we maintain momentum and strategize for the change we hoped for in 2020 - beyond reform?