“I love you.”George Perry Floyd Jr., often known to his friends as “Big Floyd,” said these words to just about anyone–friends, family, even strangers. Seems like a casual sentiment, right? Well, it did seem like it to his friends too. But as time passed and their shared world of friends and family was worn down by gun violence, addiction, and police brutality, those casual-looking three words took on a deeper meaning. Apparently, Floyd wasn’t just throwing them around. In a...

May 25th started as a simple, carefree day. He went to a store called CUP Foods with his friend Maurice Hall. There he met his old flame, Shawanda Hill. He bought a pack of menthol cigarettes using a $20 bill. Together, they headed back to Floyd’s car. All pretty regular! But something unexpected was about to happen on this seemingly regular day.Inside CUP Foods, a teenage cashier named Christopher Martin became suspicious about the $20 bill Floyd gave. He raised...

Environment shapes a man as much as his choices do. Do you think that’s true? Well, without an iota of doubt, it was in Floyd’s case. His bad chain of choices, combined with the laws in Texas, rigged everything against him.Here’s one instance that made Floyd realize how the system saw him as a Black man, as a number, but never as a person. In 2007, he and some others were involved in a robbery where a woman was threatened...

May 25, 2020. The police officers had arrived at the scene. Floyd, Maurice, and Shawanda panicked. The look on Floyd’s face at that moment–a look of fear! And then, began the series of events that would forever change the world.As the officers attempted to place Floyd in their squad car, his claustrophobia kicked in. His heart raced. “I’m not that kind of guy,” he told them. “Please don’t shoot me, man,” Floyd said. These words were the sign of many...

The protests began in Minneapolis. Thousands took to the streets. The protests weren’t just about one man–they were about generations of Black lives lost, violated, and devalued by systemic racism. And if you think that just anger brought them together, a big NO! It was love too–for Floyd–from his daughter Gianna, from his brothers, from his friends and from the rest of the world who felt his pain. To them, the protest wasn’t just for a victim of police violence;...

George Floyd–a man with big dreams and hopes that always seemed just out of reach. Despite the constant lurking of systemic racism, violence, addiction, and whatnot, he wanted to make something of himself–to provide for his daughter, to find stability, to breathe freely in a world that never gave him room to breathe!