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As the country marks five years since the police murder of George Floyd Sunday, one of the authors of a book about Floyd’s life says momentum and progress have stalled. 

“Some of the states and municipalities that have passed a number of these policing laws have, in some cases, reversed some of the things that they did because they felt like things moved too far,” said Toluse Olorunnipa, Washington Post reporter and co-author of “His Name is George Floyd.” “We've seen this really strong push against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion that has come from the federal government and state governments,” he said. 

Olorunnipa, in that way, sees parallels between this moment and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s when there was also backlash to major social and political changes taking place. 

That means it will take time to fully assess the impact of the movement that emerged after Floyd’s murder, he said.

“I think it will require us to look at things over the long course of history and the long arc of history to get a sense for whether or not change from George Floyd's death was a blip or whether it was the beginning of a bigger, broader movement.”

Click the audio player above to hear the conversation between Olorunnipa and MPR News’ Emily Reese. The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

How did you see the story of Floyd’s life as the story of racism in America?

He grew up poor despite the fact that his family had worked hard as a result of sharecropping and slavery going back several generations in his family. So, that’s the first instance of systemic racism impacting him, even before he’s born.

Then, the first place his family lives is a government housing project that was designed to be segregated from the 1940s. When he gets there in the early 1980s, it’s still segregated, it’s still impoverished, and it’s still underfunded. And because he lives there, he ends up going to underfunded, segregated schools. 

Shortly after he finishes his experience with the education system, what’s waiting for him is the criminal justice system. And we found that he was arrested several times — many, many times for non-violent, petty drug possession crimes. As a result of that, he was unable to find work. 

And at the very end of his life, he literally loses his life under the knee of a police officer. 

So, just as America is grappling with systemic racism and trying to figure out how to understand it, how to fix it, how to solve it — George Floyd, in his experience, was intersecting with the various forms of systemic racism that exist in this country from the very moment he was born all the way until he took his last breath.

You opened the book with anecdotes about how George Floyd always said, ‘I love you’ when he said goodbye. Why was that the first thing you wanted people to know about him?

Well, George Floyd was someone who is well known for some of his last words — the three-word phrase “I can't breathe” — because of the way he died on camera. That was what he was saying: “I can't breathe” over and over again. 

But, for the people who knew George Floyd, the three words that they would associate with him were, “I love you.” He’d sometimes say it to people that were just strangers, “I love you, man,” just to put that out into the world. 

In part, because he knew that the chance for tragedy, the chance for people to have their lives cut short really suddenly, was always there. He had lost a lot of friends from the time he was a young kid and he always wanted to be putting that light and love out into the world.

In the years since Floyd’s murder, Minnesota, lawmakers have passed legislation limiting no-knock warrants, legislation to allow sign and release warrants at traffic stops, banned choke holds. But there were some key measures left out, like ending qualified immunity. You say, Gov. Tim Walz sensed a changing discourse and worried that lawmakers might not have another chance to pass additional reforms, like ending qualified immunity or speeding the release of body cam footage. Do you think the window for reform and change has closed?

Well, five years later, it definitely feels like the movement around George Floyd’s death — that momentum — has really dried up and in many cases, has reversed. 

Some of the states and municipalities that have passed a number of these policing laws have, in some cases, reversed some of the things that they did because they felt like things moved too far. We’ve seen this really strong push against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion that has come from the federal government and state governments. 

But as we document in the book, the changes that took place after the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s didn’t always feel like a one-way street towards progress. A lot of times, there was backward progress and a backlash to some of the progress that was taking place. 

I think it will require us to look at things over the long course of history and the long arc of history to get a sense for whether or not change from George Floyd’s death was a blip or whether it was the beginning of a bigger, broader movement.

Emily Reese

Host

Emily Bright

Ngoc Bui

Author

Toluse Olorunnipa, co-author of “His Name is George Floyd,” sees parallels between this moment and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s when there was also backlash to major social and political changes. 

Author of George Floyd biography says momentum has 'dried up'

A cover of the book "His Name is George Floyd"

Author of George Floyd biography says momentum has 'dried up'

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