“I can’t breathe”.
It’s been a year since these three words have permanently etched themselves into our collective minds as we watched a 46-year-old African American man plead for help as a police officer knelt on his neck.
His name was George Floyd, and for 9:29 minutes, Derek Chauvin slowly took his life with complete indifference.
As videos of the incident hit the internet, there was a moment of stillness as the entire world watched helplessly. For the first time, it seems, there was no denying the very real problem of racism and police brutality that pervaded society.
Internationally, protesters and activists quickly took to the streets to denounce racialised police brutality.