The Life of George Floyd

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2020

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“He's everywhere — but he's not here. He's on somebody's wall. He's on somebody's billboard. … He's in a newspaper, but he's not here. He's here in spirit. But he's not here.”

George Floyd has become a symbol, and a rallying cry. But what’s missing in our understanding is the man himself: a figure who was complicated, full of ambition, shaped by his family and his community and a century of forces around him.

On this episode of “Post Reports,” we explore the life and experiences of the man who sparked a movement, as part of The Washington Post’s series “George Floyd’s America.” The reporting explores the institutional and societal roadblocks Floyd encountered as a Black man from his birth in 1973 until his death, and the role systemic racism played throughout his life.

The eight minutes Floyd spent suffocating under the knee of a White police officer became the catalyst for nationwide protests against racial inequality. But it was not the first time that Floyd faced oppression — as a Black man, Floyd spent his 46-year life battling injustices that derailed, diminished and ultimately killed him.

“One of the reasons George Floyd has become a rallying cry across the country for racial justice protest is not because his experience was so unique,” says reporter Tolu Olorunnipa, “but in part because his experience and the experience of his family are so common.”

The series is based on a review of thousands of documents and more than 150 interviews with Floyd’s friends, colleagues, public officials and scholars.

The picture that emerges is one that underscores how systemic racism has calcified within many of America’s institutions, creating sharply disparate outcomes in housing, education, the economy, law enforcement and health care.

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Credits

Reporting for this episode from Ted Muldoon. “George Floyd’s America” was reported by Arelis Hernández, Tracy Jan, Laura Meckler, Tolu Olorunnipa, Robert Samuels, Griff Witte and Cleve Wootson. This “Post Reports” episode was produced by Ted Muldoon and Linah Mohammad and edited by Maggie Penman and Martine Powers.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports.
0:09.4	I'm Martin Powers.
0:10.7	It's Friday, October 16th.
0:13.3	I just want to say, man, that I got my shortcomings and my flaws.
0:23.2	I ain't better than nobody else.
0:25.9	But, oh, man, the shooting's is going on, man.
0:28.1	I'll care.
0:29.1	I'm going to be a man, where you at, man?
0:31.1	I love you and go out, love you, man.
0:33.2	Put them guns down, man.
0:34.9	They ain't with these.
0:36.1	You know, go up this, man.
0:37.8	And y'all hold your head, man.
0:39.6	You got parents out here sending plates, man,
0:41.9	trying to bury their keys, man.
0:43.8	Think about it, man.
0:45.1	Look at y'all.
0:47.4	When I heard this recording of George Floyd a couple weeks ago,
0:51.0	I realized that it was actually the first time
0:53.6	that I had ever heard his voice.
0:56.3	I mean, not his voice and the awful video
0:58.8	that captured his death, but just him talking in a regular way.
	...

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