Minneapolis is on fire due to enormous protests from a community mourning the horrible death of George Floyd. Mixed in with this high-tension situation is The 1975’s Matty Healy and the Black Lives Matter movement.
It’s a lot to take in so here’s an explainer into just what’s happening and how all these seemingly unrelated parts are pieces of the larger racism puzzle that’s unfolding in America right now.
Speaking of George Floyd, the GOAT team talk about the incident and white privilege on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
Who is George Floyd and why are there protests happening in Minneapolis?
George Floyd was a 46-year-old African-American man who was arrested by Minneapolis Police Department cops over suspicions of using forged documents at Cup Foods (as per CBSN Minnesota).
While the cops claimed Floyd “physically resisted” the arrest in their statement, CCTV footage and videos filmed by onlookers of the arrest showed the cops handcuffing a perfectly compliant Floyd and putting him face-down on the ground.
One of the cops, a white man named Derek Chauvin, then held Floyd down by putting his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes. Floyd can audibly be heard saying “I can’t breathe” in the footage.
Various onlooker videos show Floyd losing consciousness yet Chauvin still doesn’t remove his knee from George’s neck until paramedics arrive. An unconscious Floyd was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on May 25, 2020.
Following this display of horrendous police brutality towards George Floyd, protests erupted in Minneapolis and have gone on for several days.
That’s awful, justice needs to be served.
Yep and yep.
After videos of George Floyd’s arrest went viral and news of his death spread, the four cops involved in the incident were fired. Floyd’s family say (as per The New York Times) they want to see the cops be “arrested” and “charged” while Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey called for charges to be filed against Chauvin (as per NBC News).
At the time of writing, no charges have been laid against the four officers involved in George Floyd’s arrest, which has fueled the continued protests in Minneapolis. However it is reported (as per The Guardian) that the FBI have opened up an investigation into police involvement in Floyd’s death.
This horrible incident sparked a number of demonstrations – both peaceful and violent – in Minneapolis and several more were held across numerous cities in America, going as far as Los Angeles, New York City, and Ohio.
Following the third day of protests, Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz has called in the National Guard (as per Deadline) to “protect peaceful demonstrators, neighbors, and small businesses in Minnesota” while Mayor Jacob Frey has declared a state of emergency (as per the Star Tribune).
Trump himself (as per AP) has called for an investigation into the matter but coming from a known racist who piggybacks on events to deflect his own failings, it’s perhaps best to just ignore what he says.
So how does Matty Healy and Black Lives Matter fit into this?
Many celebrities have chimed in with their thoughts about the Minneapolis protests and George Floyd’s death, such as John Boyega who caused a big stir when he tweeted “I really fu*king hate racists.”
The 1975’s Matty Healy, who is known for his outspoken activism and occasionally putting his foot in his mouth, decided to share his two cents on the matter by tweeting “If you truly believe that ‘ALL LIVES MATTER’ you need to stop facilitating the end of black ones” alongside the video to The 1975’s song ‘Love It If We Made It.’
The internet quickly swooped in on Healy’s tweet and soon Matty copped a massive wave of backlash from people claiming he is using George Floyd’s death, the Minneapolis protests, and the Black Lives Matter movement to shamelessly promote his own band’s music.
It didn’t take long for Healy to respond with a follow up tweet stating “Sorry I did not link my song in that tweet to make it about me it’s just that the song is literally about this disgusting situation and speaks more eloquently than I can on Twitter.”
He then deleted his account completely shortly after.
So what’s next in this George Floyd/Minneapolis protests story?
Tensions are high right now and show no sign of easing up, especially if George Floyd doesn’t get any justice and charges are not laid against the cops involved in his death.
Given the recent history of African-Americans dying after encounters with the police, coupled with the general fustercluck that is America right now, outrage and anger among the population is high. It’s anyone’s guess at how this all ends at this point so we can only hope that justice is served and this will all end in the right way soon.
Always be in the loop with our snackable podcast breaking the biggest story of the day. Subscribe to It’s Been A Big Day For… on your favourite podcast app.