George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis last month聽catapulted his name and his story into a rallying cry against racial injustice and police brutality in a matter of weeks.
But as participants in an online forum last Friday made abundantly clear, Floyd is but one in a long list of such victims targeted by police because of their race.
鈥淎s I think about what it is that we鈥檙e called here today to discuss and talk about, it鈥檚 just heavy,鈥� said Derrick Brooms, an associate professor of Sociology & Africana Studies at the University of Cincinnati, in remarks at the event which was organized by Dalhousie鈥檚 Office of the Vice-Provost, Equity & Inclusion/Human Rights and Equity Services, the (DSU) and the Black Faculty & Staff Caucus.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a heaviness that is very difficult to articulate sometimes and even with that difficulty trying to articulate it, it is a reality that we must endure.鈥�
Dr. Brooms, joined by a collection of scholars and experts from Dal and the Halifax community as part of , listed Floyd alongside other Black individuals who have been killed by police in recent weeks and months.
He raised the killing of Breonna Taylor, an emergency health worker shot eight times in mid-March by police who entered her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky. Her death is now under investigation by the FBI. And he noted Tony McDade, a transgender man killed by a police officer in late May in Tallahassee, Florida in a situation many are demanding an investigation into.
鈥淎nti-Blackness is not individualized,鈥� said Dr. Brooms. 鈥淲hat we see happen to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor is not an individual act of violence. It鈥檚 an act of violence perpetuated against Black folks in general. It is an act of violence perpetuated against Black lives in general.鈥�
Burdens of proof
Demands for an extra 鈥渂urden of proof,鈥� such as an additional piece of identification during a stop by police, or receiving more severe punishments are other examples of the heavier burden Black individuals have to shoulder every day, said Dr. Brooms.
Referencing the 鈥渟pecificity of anti-Black racism,鈥� he said we can talk about police tactics used in the deaths of Black individuals, but the larger concern is how it renders Black people鈥檚 鈥渉umanity as unimaginable, invisible and absent.鈥�
He noted how Floyd鈥檚 tragic final words, 鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe,鈥� can also be used to reflect the structural and behavioural underpinnings of anti-Black racism.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 breathe because we attend too many schools where windows don鈥檛 open, where air conditioning doesn鈥檛 work, where we don鈥檛 have enough books, where we have more police officers than counsellors.鈥�
A Canadian problem, too
Other participants in the forum, which drew close to 400 viewers on Zoom, expanded on Dr. Broom鈥檚 recognizing of names and lives lost, expanding the list to include Canadians killed by police recently in situations of suspected racialized violence.
Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Andrew Loku, D'Andre Campbell, Jason Collins, Stewart Kevin Andrews were just a few names shared by Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, an associate professor and the James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies at Dal.
Dr. Dryden said one of the reasons anti-Black racism and police brutality exist in Canada is because of the 鈥渇aulty belief that Canada is a haven of racial tolerance.鈥�
She said Black people in Canada are routinely surveilled and made to feel fear, whether it鈥檚 in the grocery store, in schools, at airports and on playgrounds. She also noted that Black people are six times more likely to be street-checked by police than white people in Halifax and, in Toronto, 20 times more likely to be harmed and killed by police than white people.
鈥淲e do ourselves a disservice in refusing to acknowledge the continued harm the systems of policing continue to perpetuate against our very beings, against our lives,鈥� she said, suggesting money currently directed towards training police be redirected to help fund social programs.
Canada鈥檚 racial discrimination problem was also a focus of remarks from Rev. Rhonda Y. Britton, senior pastor at New Horizons Baptist Church in Halifax. She said it is easy in Canada to look to the south and say we are not like that.
鈥淐anada, too, is a victim of anti-Black racism in the heart of its people. Canada, too, is carrying out public lynching. This anti-Black racism can only be eradicated when it is acknowledged. Hear our voices, hear our hearts, let us do and be better together,鈥� she said.
A larger mobilization
Tiffany Gordon, a PhD student in Philosophy at Dal, contextualized the current mobilization underway on the streets as part of the larger Black Lives Matter movement, providing a snapshot of how this movement has evolved since it emerged in 2013.
She noted that some police have even begun joining protestors in 鈥渢aking the knee鈥� 鈥� the symbolic physical gesture widely used as a sign of support.
Expanding on a point made by forum moderator Theresa Rajack-Talley, Dal鈥檚 vice-provost of equity and inclusion, in her introduction, Gordon noted parallels between the COVID-19 pandemic and a pandemic of anti-Black racism. She said the former has played into the broader public鈥檚 understanding of the latter.
鈥淚 believe that a lot of people are feeling their humanity right now and feeling how vulnerable they are to outside forces. And this is the way a lot of people in the Black community have felt for years,鈥� she said.
Isaac Saney, university teaching fellow and director of the Transition Year Program at Dal, also drew connections between COVID-19 and anti-Black racism in his remarks, noting how African Americans have died at disproportionately high rates from COVID-19. He said the virus has illustrated dramatically the 鈥渋ntegral connection of race and class, white supremacy and the political and social arrangement that exist.鈥�
鈥淭his whole pandemic, and what has emerged with the rebellion, has demonstrated that the system is unable to meet the needs of humanity,鈥� he said.
But Dr. Saney also conveyed some optimism that this 鈥渉istoric time鈥� could be a 鈥減ivotal turning point.鈥�
鈥淎t this point, there is at least a transformation, however temporary in people鈥檚 consciousness, that can perhaps lead to the deep structural transformations.鈥�