One year on: how a gruesome murder became a catalyst for a regressive new politics.
It’s one year since George Floyd was murdered. Since Derek Chauvin forced his knee on to Floyd as he gasped for air and cried for his mother. Since that image of a cavalier cop and a desperate black man was beamed around the world, horrifying everyone who saw it. And it’s one year since the killing of Floyd started to morph into something else. Since it started to become a symbol, a weapon even, which was then marshalled to a broader cause. We might call it the revenge of the elites – the exploitation of Floyd’s death to reprimand populism and to further institutionalise the regressive, controlling politics of identity.
