Rice Center for Engineering Leadership

“A dream worth giving oxygen to…”

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was pinned down by two Minneapolis, Minnesota police officers, as a third one kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds until he was dead. The victim was African American, handcuffed and unarmed, and the police officers were White. A fourth police officer stood guard to prevent interference from pleading civilian onlookers. Although safely tucked away for days in my home due to COVID-19, one can imagine that it still did not take long for me to feel the existential threat here because when they called in Mr. Floyd’s description – Black, 6-4, around 220 pounds – they were calling in my same description. 

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