HE TOUCHED THE WORLD

As a kid George Floyd wanted to make it big in football, but instead his death brought big change

- KIM ABRAHAMS

IT’S the early 1990s and a group of teenagers are discussing what they want to do when they finish school.

One, a tall 17-year-old kid called George Floyd, turns to his friend and says, “I want to touch the world.”

Back then, George was talking about making his name in American football – a sport he was so good at, it would win him a scholarship to university and make him the first person in his family to go to college.

He couldn’t know how true his words would ring nearly 30 years later. As his brother, Philonise Floyd, said at one of several memorials to honour George, “kings and queens know who my brother is now”.

George has indeed touched the world – although it took his terrible death under a policeman’s knee for him to become a household name.

The Black Lives Matter protests sparked by his death in Minneapolis on 25 May spread across the United States and swept across the seas, erupting in the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand and South Africa.

Moving scenes of police officers symbolically taking the knee alongside swelling tides of protesters were beamed across the globe.

For Philonise, the impact his brother’s death has had brings a measure of comfort. “I didn’t just want to see him on a shirt like those other guys,” he said, referring to African Americans who have also died at the hands of police. “I wanted something to come out of it.”