The horror of George Floyd's death seeped into my consciousness weeks before I saw the actual video. Honestly, I didn't want to see it. I tried my best to avoid it. At this point, who wants to see another Black person heartlessly having their life snatched away by some hateful or careless officer –- only to see that shared and reshared over and over again? Unfortunately, the answer is that millions of people wanted to see it, meaning I had no choice.
No one had a choice. Everybody and their mother was talking about the horrific footage of disgraced Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes — because he was suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill. That video was recorded by a young woman named Darnella Frazier. Through her lens we saw Floyd alive and calling for his mom, and then losing his breath and his life repeatedly on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and both local and cable news. Author and scholar Marc Lamont Hill credits Frazier's bravery and details how moments like these have shifted the narrative on race in America in a new book with his co-author Todd Brewster, "Seen and Unseen: Technology, Social Media, and the Fight for Racial Justice."
