George Floyd: Let’s make daughter’s hope that ‘Daddy changed world’ come true – Steve Cardownie

George Floyd’s death has sparked a global movement that could finally put an end to the scourge of racism, writes Steve Cardownie.

George Floyd's killing by a police officer in the US has sparked protests all over the world against racism (Picture: John Devlin)

Many years ago I helped to organise a Rock Against Racism/Anti-Nazi League march and concert in Edinburgh in protest at the rise of fascism and racism on the streets of Scotland.

The march was sensitively policed and proceeded peacefully, culminating in a live music event that enthused the crowd and reinforced their determination to stand up to racists.

Now the inspiring “Black Lives Matter” protests taking place throughout the world and here in Edinburgh aptly highlight the strength of feeling that racism evokes and the death of George Floyd while being taken into police custody in Minneapolis has reignited a movement that has remained dormant for too long.

The hundreds of thousands of demonstrators may well achieve what George Floyd’s daughter, Gianna, said – that “Daddy changed the world”.

The significance of these words may not be fully understood by a six-year-old but she will grow up to realise the enormity of the movement that her father’s tragic death spawned.

Most of the 8,000 people who gathered in Craigmillar Park to round off the 1978 demo probably were hoping that by 2020 racism would not be such a serious matter and that the world would have moved on, but here we are, witnessing a global response to the same issue, on an almost unimaginable scale.

This time, maybe, just maybe, this movement will prevail and there will come a time when it will not be necessary for people to take to the streets to display their abhorrence of racism and its blight on society.

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