Former President Barack Obama weighed in Friday on George Floyd’s killing, saying that racism and bigotry “can’t be normal.”
“It’s natural to wish for life ‘to just get back to normal’ as a pandemic and economic crisis upend everything else around us,” Obama said in a statement posted to his Twitter feed. “But we have to remember that for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal.'”
“This shouldn’t be ‘normal’ in 2020 America,” Obama continued. “If we want our children to grow up in a nation that lives up to its highest ideals, we can and must be better.”
My statement on the death of George Floyd: pic.twitter.com/Hg1k9JHT6R
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 29, 2020
Obama added that it will be up to local officials in Minnesota to ensure justice for Floyd, whose death generated national outrage after a video showed police officers pinning him down, with one officer kneeling down on Floyd’s neck. (RELATED: CNN Analyst Bakari Sellers Blames ‘Trump’s America’ In Part For CNN Reporter’s Arrest)
“It will fall mainly on the officials of Minnesota to ensure that the circumstances surrounding George Floyd’s death are investigated thoroughly and that justice is ultimately done,” Obama said. “But it falls on all of us regardless of our race or station…to work together to create a ‘new normal’ in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our hearts.”
None of the police officers involved have been charged yet, but President Donald Trump has ordered the Justice Department and the FBI to complete an “expedited” investigation into Floyd’s death. Floyd’s death has led to demonstrations and riots in Minneapolis throughout the week.