Global rallies echo calls for social justice
TOKYO — Holding “Black Lives Matter” signs, hundreds of people marched peacefully in Tokyo on Sunday, highlighting the outrage over the death of George Floyd even in a country often perceived as homogeneous and untouched by racial issues.
Mio Kosaka, a participant, said she had been a victim of discrimination while growing up in Beijing and Tokyo, because her parents were Japanese and Chinese.
“I think it is so wrong to discriminate based on appearance, and I wanted to relay the message that the American people have allies in Japan,” Kosaka said.
Protests have continued across the U.S. but also in Europe, including Belgium, Germany and Britain, as well as Australia, where people have been confronting racism and demanding change.
The demonstrators were pushed into action by the May 25 death of Floyd, a black man who said he could not breathe as a white Minneapolis police officer pushed his knee against his neck for nearly nine minutes.
In New Zealand, thousands protested in Auckland and Wellington on Sunday. The Auckland protest ended at the U.S. Consulate, where people took a knee and observed a minute of silence for Floyd. In Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, protesters marched from Civic Square to the grounds of Parliament.
In a national address, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged Sunday to stand firm against racism but also praised police and insisted that France wouldn’t take down statues of controversial, colonialera figures.
It was the first time Macron has spoken on the issues since Floyd’s death inspired protests against racial injustice and police brutality, particularly toward minorities from France’s former colonies in Africa.
Macron promised to be “uncompromising in the face of racism, antiSemitism and discrimination.”
In Berlin, thousands of people formed a human chain through the German capital in what organizers called an “Indivisible” demonstration. They were linked by colored ribbons, forming what organizers dubbed a “ribbon of solidarity.”