“Black Liberty” is a massive mural measuring 120in (304.8 cm) wide by 90in (228.6 cm) high depicting the Statue of Liberty monument in New York, with a fusion of George Floyd's face. The lower part of the painting features a replica of the plaque at the base of the monument, which bears Emma Lazarus' poem “With silent lips, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. Above this plaque, Floyd's last words, “I can't breathe!”, have been spray-painted in graffiti. This painting is a protest against systemic racism, unequal civil rights and the treatment of people of color by the police and other authorities, particularly in the United States, although it exists to some degree in most countries.
Castles.S. (1993), “The systematic ideas of ‘race’, in which phenotypic characteristics (skin color, physical features) were born of European colonialism: from the 15th century onwards, religiously inspired views of the barbarity and inferiority of the indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia and the Americas were created by royalty and used to legitimize invasion, genocide, slavery and exploitation.” .
Today, when a situation is not in our favor, even if it is not justified, we use prejudices such as skin color or physical characteristics to manipulate reality. This has no other purpose than to put us first.
Although we are all spiritual beings with the same spirit or spark within us. With this awareness of having the same thing in us, we can say that we have the same value, the same dignity and the same rights.
That is why the situation in which we currently live, after the death of George Floyd, is a spiritual crisis and the only way out is to consider each human being as a spiritual being with the same value, the same dignity and the same rights. Ref: Castles.S. (1993), Racism: a global analysis, Centre for Multicultural Studies, University of Wollongong, Occasional Paper 28, 1993, 45.
