PCAF's Statement on the Killing of George Floyd and Recent Protests

George Floyd was killed by police in broad daylight as he said “I can’t breathe” and begged for his life. 

His death is not an anomaly - far from it. It was part of a pattern of violence against Black and Brown people that began before our country was even founded. 

Eric Garner. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. Tony McDade. Sandra Bland. Philando Castile. Mike Brown. Tamir Rice. And so, so many more. 

Yet, after each of these violent deaths, it’s been too easy for many of us, and particularly for white people, to look away and forget, as soon as the headlines fade. Black people do not have that luxury. Anti-Blackness puts Black lives in danger every single day. 

Black families have been shattered over and over again, as their loved ones are brutally killed by police. These murders are part of a pattern of systemic racism toward Black people marked by over-policing, higher levels of incarceration, redlining, school segregation, employment discrimination, economic injustice, and other forms of institutionalized racism.  This same systemic racism is responsible for the disproportionate deaths and economic devastation wreaked on Black communities during this pandemic. 

We are outraged, we are grieving, and we are recommitting to doing our part in the fight against systemic racism. As a collective movement, we must do better. We must demand real solutions, and we must not stop demanding them until we achieve them. 

As a movement, we must come together to demand an end to police violence and the systemic racism that fuels it. And we must come together to demand an end to an America in which Black people live in poverty at nearly 3 times the rate of white people, and are locked up at considerably higher rates than white people for the same or lesser offenses.  In the coming months, we are committed to listening to and lifting up Black-led organizations fighting to save Black lives.