Beyoncé is asking her legions of fans to take action after the death of George Floyd.
The Grammy-winning artist is one of several celebrities using their social media platforms to demand change in the wake of Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last week.
“We’re broken and we’re disgusted,” she says in a video posted on Instagram. “We cannot normalize this pain. I’m not only speaking to people of color. If you’re white, black, brown and anything in between, I’m sure you feel hopeless by the racism going on in America right now.”
Floyd was arrested by Minneapolis police on Monday and died while being restrained by officers. Video footage of the arrest showed officers restraining Floyd on the ground with one officer, Derek Chauvin, with his knee on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in total. Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and was fired by the department along with three other officers.
In the video, Beyoncé went on to say, “No more senseless killings of human beings. No more seeing people of color as less than human. We can no longer look away. George is all of our family and humanity. He is our family because he is a fellow American.”
“There have been too many times that we’ve seen these violent killings and no consequences,” she said. “Yes, someone’s been charged, but justice is far from being achieved.”
Beyoncé ended the video by asking fans to visit a page on her website which includes links to several petitions. One of the petitions on Change.org has already amassed more than 9 million signatures.
“Continue to pray for peace and compassion and healing for our country,” she said.
