George Floyd Presente – We Remember

Five years ago, on May 24, 2025, George Floyd was murdered over an agonizing 8 minutes and 46 seconds. In the days afterward, the centuries-long reality of racist police violence exploded across the US as we saw the video of a Minneapolis Police Officer kneeling on Mr. Floyd's neck. Today, the limited changes made as a result of the mass movement which responded to this horror, are under full out assault.

At Syracuse Cultural Workers, we wish to honor George Floyd's memory and renew our commitment to confronting white supremacy in all its manifestations. This includes working for the transformation of the criminal legal system which rarely provides justice (though former police officer Derek Chauvin remains in prison after being convicted of murder).

A recent NPR story interviewed Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa, authors of His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice. In seeking to understand and describe George Floyd the human being, the journalists ultimately conclude that his murder was an expected consequence of institutional racism. They trace the story from the enslavement of his ancestors in North Carolina, to sharecropping, segregation, mass incarceration, lack of addiction treatment services and an ongoing culture in which Black Lives Don't Matter.

Like many of you, I marched often as part of that massive movement that offered hope for meaningful progress. Unfortunately, little has changed, and over the past four years hundreds of other innocent people of color have been killed by police across the country. While efforts at federal reform were stymied by united Republican opposition, there has been meaningful but certainly insufficient progress in some communities and states. Despite the obstacles, organizers continue to press forward on these critical issues.

In solidarity,

Andy Mager
SCW Coordinator

PS: The Trump administration's recent announcement that they are abandoning police reform agreements with Minneapolis and Louisville shows their callous disregard for human life and justice.