"“Centering” race is not the same thing as undoing racism"
After George Floyd was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin and video of the murder was shared widely, a wave of protests began in Minneapolis, where the incident occurred, as well as in most other metropolitan areas in the U.S. and many smaller cities and towns. The violent police response to these events has generated footage of their tear gassing, pepper spraying, brutalizing, and beating American civilians with batons, much of which has circulated online and reinforced the protests’ urgency.
On June 8, U.S. House and Senate Democrats responded to this popular uprising. Wearing kente cloth draped around their necks and flanked by members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer walked to Emancipation Hall in the Capitol and kneeled for eight minutes and 46 seconds to honor Floyd, mimicking a common protest action. Images and videos of this event, which was staged to coordinate with the introduction of a police-reform bill, also proliferated across social media and news sites, but to a very different effect.