(Chapter 4) MORE REPERCUSSIONS IN THE FOLLOWING MONTHS

Few days before the day of the funeral of George Floyd (9th June, 2020) and on the day of his funeral, lots of significant events took place around the world. The most significant of them was the demand for the removal of statues of those who supported slavery across the globe in the last couple of centuries. Another important event was that the demonstrations spread more and more globally to countries like France, Spain, Italy, Kenya, Portugal, Australia, Newzealand etc. People came out with huge banners of "BLACK LIVES MATTER", "I CAN'T BREATHE" and "WE CAN'T BREATHE". Inside the US, the demonstrations spread to newer cities like St.Louis, Raleigh, San Francisco, Tennessee etc. Although there was anger as regards to what happened at Minneapolis, most of these protests were peaceful. 

Protests and Demonstrations spread all across the globe in June

On June 7, protesters in Bristol, in the south-west of England, tore down a 125-year old statue of the 17th century slave-owner Edward Colston, before throwing the monument into the city’s harbor. While some British politicians condemned the action, the statue has been the center of long-running controversy given Edward Colston’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and the deaths of thousands of African people. These events then brought about a renewed energy to the efforts of removal of monuments like Colston’s — the ones that many people view as painful and unnecessary reminders of past injustices.

Removal of the statue of Edward Colston by protestors at Bristol, UK

                  Protestors in Bristol throw away the statue of Edward                                           Colston in the harbour at Bristol UK

Apart from this thousands of people gathered outside an Oxford college to demand the removal of a statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes. Twenty-six Oxford city councillors signed a letter saying the figure at Oriel College was "incompatible" with the city's "commitment to anti-racism".

Oriel College said it "abhors racism and 

discrimination in all its forms".

Campaigners said Rhodes, a 19th Century

 businessman and politician in southern

 Africa, represented white supremacy and is

 steeped in colonialism and racism.

A statue of slaveholder Robert Milligan

 was earlier removed from outside the 

Museum of London Docklands after mayor 

Sadiq Khan said any links to slavery "should 

be taken down".


Protesters chanted "take it down" and then

held a silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds 

in memory of George Floyd - the same length 

of time a white police officer was seen to 

kneel on his neck.

The protest coincided with George Floyd's 

funeral in Houston . In London about 50 

activists gathered at Nelson Mandela's statue 

in Parliament Square to observe a minute's 

silence in his memory before marching to 

Downing Street.

A Survey conducted across the cities of the 

UK showed that 66% of the blacks were likely 

to be subjected to police brutality compared 

to the whites which were just 33% likely to 

get wrongly brutalized or penalized by the 

police.

It also showed that the chances of getting 

wrongly arrested by a black man on the roads 

of UK were 3 times that of a white man. 

Cheryl Dorsey, a retired US Sergeant and the 

author of "Blue and Black"meanwhile said in 

an interview to an america news channel that 

"Although there is a huge demand for the 

substantial reforms in the police departments 

across the US since the death of Eric Garner 

in 2014, nothing much has been done. She 

asked why officers with dismal track records 

of attacking black innocent people for as 

much as 17 times are continued on duty 

(quoting the example of Derek Chauvin who 

murdered George Floyd on May 25th, 2020 

at Minneapolis)." She also said that "the 

mindset of senior police officials of several 

police departments need to be changed. They 

still think that any officer can not be 

terminated from his duty so easily even if he 

has committed a horrible crime like 

murdering an innocent civilian on the road. 

They always try to defend the police officers 

before looking at their faults. This mindset 

has led to racist and arrogant police officers 

to rise in their ranks, get promotions and 

then commit such horrendous murders as 

that of Chauvin. Unless this mindset is not 

changed nothing much can be expected as far 

as the police reforms are concerned. It would 

be all on paper with no big practical steps 

taken."

Meanwhile the protests have continued 

across the world after 28 days of Floyd's 

murder. In the US, peaceful protests were 

held at Tampa, Florida, St.Louis, Los 

Angeles, New York, Chicago and several 

other cities. They were also held at London 

and Bristol in UK, Madrid (Spain), Rome 

(Italy), Paris (France), Berlin and Frankfurt 

(Germany) as well as in Brazilia (Brazil).


Not just the acts of the british colonies but 

also the acts of other european colonies were 

under scanner. For example the German 

colonial power in Namibia in the 20th 

century came under scrutiny as Namibian 

africans demanded for justice against the 

brutal killings of around 100,000 of 

Namibians at Nama and Herero by 

the German empire which occupied Namibia 

during 1904-1908. These Namibians have 

demanded for reconciliations and 

financial compensations for all the atrocities 

committed by the Germans. Similar demands 

of financial compensations for colonial 

occupations have risen against the Dutch, the 

Portuguese as well as the French. This has 

given fresh tensions to the current heads of 

states of these countries, viz. Germany, 

Netherlands, Portugal and France as if these 

demands intensify then the likely financial 

compensations can go up to millions of US 

Dollars, which is very hard to pay during 

these times of coronavirus pandemic.