Editors’ Introduction to the Virtual Special Issue on Race, Racism, and Racial Thought
The casually brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin has sparked protests against U.S. racism around the world. Washington D.C.-based Angolan journalist Mayra de Lassalette noted the irony that Floyd was murdered on Africa Day. Across the African continent, individuals, movements, and parties have mobilized to manifest their solidarity, critique U.S. hypocrisy, and demand that their own governments institute police reform. Burkina Faso’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Désiré Sougouri, called on the organization’s Human Rights Council to debate racially motivated human rights abuses, the systemic racism that inspires police brutality of Afro-descended peoples around the world, and police violence against peaceful protestors. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union, condemned Floyd’s murder and invoked the organization’s 1964 resolution against racial discrimination in the United States.