Feature: African Americans in Minneapolis disappointed by lack of progress in rooting out racism

MINNEAPOLIS, United States, Could 29 (Xinhua) — Kevin Brown, an African American and part-time worker of a grocery store in Minneapolis, Minnesota, says he experiences racism each day.

“The unhappy half about it’s generally we do not perceive that all of us have one thing in widespread,” he mentioned throughout a current interview with Xinhua close to the positioning the place white police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on African American man George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds throughout a road arrest two years in the past.

The horrific policing apply which led to Floyd’s demise set off nationwide demonstrations in opposition to police brutality and racism in the US in the summertime of 2020.

After studying in regards to the “graphic” nature of the encounter, Brown attended the protests in Minneapolis, saying what Floyd skilled “simply takes the air out of you.”

To his disappointment, not a lot has modified concerning racism and bias in opposition to African People in the US since Floyd pleaded “I am unable to breathe” in obvious agony underneath Chauvin’s knee.

The intersection of thirty eighth Road and Chicago Avenue in south Minneapolis, the place Floyd misplaced his life, has not too long ago been named “George Perry Floyd Sq..”

“I do know him as Perry, the place on this planet you all name him George Floyd, which was one thing I needed to like get used to,” Angela Harrelson, Floyd’s aunt, informed Xinhua.

Floyd moved to Minneapolis for a contemporary begin a number of years in the past. Harrelson revealed that Floyd “was having a tough time as a result of he misplaced his mom” earlier than the tragedy descended on him.

“He relapsed, and it was an emotional rollercoaster for him going backwards and forwards. He did not bounce again like as simple like he usually did,” the aunt recalled. “When he misplaced his mother, that was a tough hit. That was extraordinarily troublesome. It is like he grew to become very remoted. He grew to become very withdrawn.”

Tall and athletic with a life full of obstacles, Floyd “wasn’t good” however “all the time needed to higher his life,” in response to Harrelson, who mentioned she turned numb upon studying of her nephew’s struggling.

“I do not know if it was surprising in denial as a result of nothing made sense to me,” she mentioned.

Health workers have concluded the reason for Floyd’s demise was “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating regulation enforcement subdual restraint and neck compression.”

All 4 concerned Minneapolis officers had been fired and located responsible of various fees. Chauvin is serving a sentence of twenty-two years and 6 months in jail after being convicted of murdering Floyd.

“It is by no means gonna be justice. You possibly can’t have justice for an individual that is useless,” Minneapolis civil rights activist and African American Marquis Bowie informed Xinhua. “We would like accountability, however you may by no means have justice as a result of he cannot go dwelling and hug his daughter or his different youngsters. So it’s going to by no means be justice.”

Lower than two weeks earlier than the second anniversary of Floyd’s homicide, a white shooter stormed a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, in a racially motivated hate bloodbath, killing 10 folks and injuring three others, 11 of them African People.

“Racism is actual in America. It has all the time been. Xenophobia is actual in America. It has all the time been,” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned not too long ago in response to the Buffalo taking pictures.

In accordance with a brand new Washington Publish-Ipsos ballot, three-quarters of African People are anxious that they or somebody they love shall be attacked due to their race. The survey additionally discovered that greater than half of African People consider the issue of racism will worsen of their lifetimes.

Harrelson pressured the combat for African People to hunt equality in the US is much from over, including that “nobody ought to have a membership to equality. Equality is a birthright. It is not an choice.”

“The message is ‘no extra.’ We’re going ahead,” she continued. “We’re not taking ‘no’ for a solution.” 

(Net editor: Peng Yukai, Liang Jun)