Minneapolis father George Floyd died on May 25 after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes, ignoring his protests that he couldn't breathe. However, as Patriot Act host Hasan Minhaj pointed out in a digital clip on Wednesday, that wasn't the whole story. Others were also involved in the incident, including a Hmong-American officer who blocked off witnesses, and an Arab-American who owned the store that called the police on Floyd.
"That is America. A black man was murdered in cold blood, and we were on the fucking sidelines watching," said Minhaj, calling for non-black people of color to step up. "I'm not saying we were the ones who killed George Floyd. But we have to be the ones who pull that cop off his neck!"
In a powerful 12-minute monologue, Minhaj targeted anti-black racism in other communities of color, and demanded they take action beyond simply sharing a black square on Instagram. "We think we're not a part of the story, but we're at the scene of the crime! That's why the full picture matters. This doesn't happen in a vacuum — it happens in a system."
"We have to donate our money and time to black organisations," said Minhaj. "We have got to get our civics law school nerd shit on right now."
Minhaj further compared the U.S. to the countries many people of color have come from, and acknowledged that a lot of them immigrated hoping for peace and stability.
"But imagine if you lived in a country where the color of your skin got you killed for driving, jogging, sleeping, yelling, parking, babysitting, sitting in a van, selling CDs, selling cigarettes, opening the door, walking at night, wearing a hoodie at night, holding a toy gun, lying on the ground, being homeless, being in a dark stairwell, holding a cell phone, having a broken tail light, exercising horses, having a bottle of pills, shopping at Walmart, holding a BB gun at Walmart, holding a phone in your own backyard, eating ice cream in your own house, and shopping," said Minhaj, as photos of black people who have been killed doing these activities covered the screen one by one. "You would say, 'That is a lawless country — who the fuck is running the show?'"
"America's story didn't start when we got here," said Minhaj. "When you became an American citizen you don't just get to own the country's excellence. You have to own its failures. That is the deal."
Topics Activism Racial Justice
