May 25, 2025
George Floyd Memorial 2025
Millions took to streets across the world to protest the police killing of Floyd, a Black Minneapolis man who gasped “I can’t breathe,” shortly before dying after an officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes in May 2020. His plea became a rally cry for the protest movement, which demanded police accountability and racial justice. Companies pledged significant sums of money toward addressing systemic discrimination. And conversations about structural racism were thrust into the spotlight.
Yet, exactly five years after Floyd’s murder, the nation has seen a drastic reversal of support for racial equity efforts. Commitments made by corporate America and the government have been dialed back or eliminated. Diversity, equity and inclusion policies and programs are in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s administration. Some of these rollbacks predate his Oval Office return.
Floyd’s murder “was an ultimate sacrifice, and I think if you don’t create opportunities for people to learn from it, if we don’t have changes that happen because of that huge loss, then it was in vain. His death was in vain,” McGee said at a Houston event Thursday commemorating Floyd’s life, adding she’s disappointed but not surprised by the rollbacks and the Department of Justice’s decision to drop oversight spurred byFloyd and the police killings of other Black Americans.
