George Floyd video adds to trauma: 'When is the last time you saw a white person killed online?'

[Mike 03]

USA Today
Alia E. Dastagir

Analysis: African Americans face harmful mental health effects every time high-profile incidents of racism and police brutality go viral, especially when little changes in the aftermath.

Headline after headline, the same story: a black American dead.

George Floyd, after a police officer knelt on his neck. Ahmaud Arbery, while on a jog in Georgia. Breonna Taylor, while police raided her Louisville home.

And the ones before: Eric Garner, who couldn't breathe. Philando Castile, in the car with his girlfriend and her four-year-old daughter. Trayvon Martin, only a boy.

Scores of killings answered with acquittals. Now, as a pandemic rages, African Americans in communities across the country disproportionally devastated by COVID-19 are forced to bear witness to more black deaths.

The costs of these deaths ripple. When people of color experience racism, when they repeatedly witness racism, there is a profound emotional toll.

"The persistent pandemic is racism. That's the pandemic. Recent deaths of individuals of color and the deleterious impact of COVID-19 on communities of color stems all the way from 1776," said Alisha Moreland-Capuia, executive director of Oregon Health & Science University's Avel Gordly Center for Healing, which focuses on culturally sensitive care for the African-American community.

Excellent analysis. Read more here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/28/george-floyd-ahmaud-arbery-covid-emotional-toll-hits-black-families/5270216002/

I hope the bystanders who witnessed this crime, and who tried to stop it by pleading with the officers to stop killing George Floyd, and who no doubt experienced trauma as well, get looked after. I know if I saw that in real life it would change me forever.

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[5X]

2. I'm an old white guy and that traumatized me as well.

I can't imagine what his family or friends felt.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

6. I hear ya!!

[dalton99a]

3. George Floyd was killed like an animal, for the whole world to watch

[LiberalBrooke]

4. It was an execution

[Heartstrings]

5. Have friends in England and Australia all asking

“WTF is wrong with America?“

We’re broken....

I’m old, tired of this crap, and scared for my children and grandchildren. Oh, and I’m white and very aware of my privilege.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

7. Same... get that all the time from my relatives overseas.

[Archae]

8. A day or two ago, someone posted a tweet with a crazy woman shot dead by cops.

She was attacking with a pair of scissors in each hand, and the cop shot her dead.

No outrage needed, since she was obviously off her nut for some reason, might have even been high on dope.

She was white.

It isn't really decided by race, all the time, money plays a big part in policing.

When was the last time you heard of or saw a rich POC killed by cops?

I still remember OJ Simpson, and how he was coddled by just about the whole system until he was busted for armed robbery.