The Lady With an Obama-Biden ‘08 Sign at the George Floyd Rally
Still thinking about her more than a year later
My mind often drifts back to May 30, 2020. Minneapolis police had just murdered George Floyd earlier that week, and we were on the fifth day of a nationwide uprising. A great tide of humanity was washing over the center of every major city demanding justice for the victims of police violence.
I was one of the thousands that marched in Seattle that day. This was the type of scene radicals always picture in their minds when they speak romantically about “the masses.”
Everyone was in the streets.
And when I say “everyone,” I of course mean on one side of the political spectrum— from Boomer Democrats to socialist grad students to various and sundry insurrectionary black bloc types.
It was a big tent.
Upon arriving downtown, I just stood there taking it all in. I took pictures, listened to the chants — and read the signs.
You had the standard “Black Lives Matter” and “Justice for George Floyd” pickets. Others were aggressive, e.g. “Fuck the Pigs,” or featured radical demands like “Abolish the Police.”
For the most part, it was the kind of stuff you would expect. But there among a sea of…
