I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. Tragically, George Floyd isn't the only one who's uttered, I can't breathe before dying at the hands of a uniformed officer. And in the UK, human rights lawyer, Dexter D.S., has represented families of these victims for three decades.

In his Ted X Exeter talk from 2020, he unpacks the meaning of race so we can better understand racism and its damaging impact on all our lives.

I especially love his insights on fragility.

This one, we'll stick with you.

I'm a human rights lawyer. I've been a human rights lawyer for 30 years. And this is what I know.

Once there was a man alone in a room.

And his name was Alton.

And then seven other men, seven strangers, rushed into his room and dragged him out.

And they held him in a horizontal crucifix position, one on each arm, two on each leg.

And the seventh man held Alton's neck in a vice-like grip between his forearms.

And Alton was struggling for breath and saying, I can't breathe.

Just as George Floyd said, I can't breathe.

But they didn't stop.

And soon Alton was dead.

When I was asked to represent his mother and his brother and his sister, in the inquest into his death, they asked me, how could it happen? And I didn't have an answer. Because Alton had

injuries all over his body. He had bruising to his neck and his torso. He had injuries to his

arms and his legs. He had blood in his eyes, his ears and his nose.

But they claimed no one knew anything. They claimed that they couldn't explain how he died.

For Alton had two problems. Firstly, the corridor in which he died was a prison corridor.

And secondly, he was black. So I want to talk to you today about Alton's mother's question. How could such a thing happen in our country? How can these things happen in countries across the world? How can they happen still? And what can we do to stop it? For three decades, I've been representing the

families of people of colour who have been killed in state custody in the United Kingdom.

And I've done human rights work across four continents.

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