(Middle East Eye) “Please, please, I can’t breathe,” George Floyd pleaded, gasping for air as a police officer’s knee pressed into his neck for several minutes until his life was lost.
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on Monday has touched the conscience of America, renewing the trauma of centuries of racial injustice and police brutality against African Americans and sparking furious protests in Minnesota and across the country.
As demonstrators set ablaze a police precinct building in Minneapolis on Thursday night, a debate emerged within US Arab communities about solidarity with African Americans and the responsibilities of immigrant-owned businesses in predominantly black neighbourhoods.
The police were arresting Floyd in response to a call by an Arab American-owned store, whose employees suspected that the 46-year-old customer was trying to pass them a counterfeit $20 bill.
