The world came to a screeching halt after George Floyd, a black man from Minneapolis, was murdered by a police officer. For 8 minutes and 46 seconds, Derek Chauvin put his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck, causing him to die by asphyxiation. This horrific incident caused unprecedented protests not only across the US but around the world on nearly every continent in support of George Floyd and condemning police brutality. The Chinese foreign ministry called racism in the US “a chronic disease of American society” in an apparent jab at the US government, which had condemned the crackdown on protests in Hong Kong. Protests spread to Europe, resulting in clashes in some instances. In the Middle East, the images of support for the protests from war-torn Syria were widely shared in social media. As the US is dealing with how to confront racism at home, the Floyd protests will likely have implications for America’s global image and credibility.
The SETA Foundation at Washington, DC is pleased to host a distinguished panel of experts to discuss the global reverberations of the Floyd protests with Ho-Fung Hung and Borzou Daragahi. This session is moderated by Kilic B. Kanat.
