George Floyd Racism and Protests in AmericaEnglish Lesson

if you live in the US or you follow the

news on the US undoubtedly

you’ve seen that Americans are

protesting all across the country in

response to the death of George Floyd at

the hands of a Minnesota police officer

and as a non-native speaker of English

perhaps you’re seeing a slew of new

terms what’s the difference between a

protest a riot and looting for example

today we’re going to go over some terms

that you’ll be seeing in the news cycle

about the current events in America

we’ll talk about different kinds of

racism and the ISM suffix stick with me

I did have another learn English this

movies video planned for today but we’ll

just push that to next week George Floyd

was 46 years old when he was suspected

of using a counterfeit $20 bill

what does counterfeit mean it simply

means fake you’ll notice that Americans

will usually drop the first T there

because it comes after an N this is true

of words like Internet and interview as

well counterfeit counterfeit on May 25 a

group of police officers in Minneapolis

Minnesota apprehended him and took a

series of actions that violated the

policies of their Police Department

we’re going to talk about the words

policy and police in a moment

one officer knelt on his neck for almost

nine minutes which killed him in broad

daylight with witnesses taking video

with George Floyd saying I can’t breathe

with witnesses saying he can’t breathe

and so in news stories about what has

happened and what is happening you might

see the phrases excessive force or

police brutality but first let’s talk

about the words police and policy they

both come from the Greek word police

police I’m probably not saying that

completely right but it’s the Greek word

which means a city state citizenship a

group of people all governed by the same

government police we have second

syllable stress first vowel is a schwa

police policy we have first syllable

stress and the vowel is the AH as in

father vowel

police policy only one letter is

different but the pronunciation is quite

different police policy a policy is a

course of action adopted by a government

or a governing body so you might have

heard the term foreign policy each

president puts his or her own spin on

foreign policy in the case of the

Minnesota Police Department it’s the

course of action the steps the rules of

how to do things when on duty the policy

you might also see this at work

what is your sick leave policy that

means what are the rules about when or

how a worker can take off when they’re

sick or I was late for a dentist

appointment Monday and I called ahead

and I said what’s your late policy that

is how late can I still show up and see

the dentist other related words with

this route politics metropolis which is

a large city or metropolitan a

characteristic of a metropolis

especially in culture sophistication

accepting a wide variety of people and

ideas she became very metropolitan after

moving to New York City police force has

two different meanings it can mean the

group of officers all working for the

same unit a city or a county for example

she’s a member of the Philadelphia

police force but it also means force

action to get somebody to do something

physically how do you force them police

force so when an officer is arresting a

citizen what kind of force is needed

maybe no force at all maybe the citizen

struggles or resists and the officer

uses some force was it appropriate force

or was it excessive force

excessive meaning more than you need

excessive force in the case of George

Floyd the officer did not need to kneel

on his neck for eight minutes to make

the arrest but did and this is the

definition of police brutality

when officers use excessive force

against a citizen and this actually

doesn’t have to be physical force

against a person it can be verbal

harassment it can be property damage

so this brings us to the outrage of many

of the citizens of the United States

myself included and we’ll get to

protests in a moment

but first I want to say that I am

disabling comments for this video as

you’ve probably already found why social

media comment sections can be a place

where our worst selves come out we can

become very polarized polarized means

sharply divided and I have decided for

myself that I don’t want to police the

comments of the video here I’m using the

word police as a verb meaning to

regulate or control if people get really

nasty with each other in the comments

which has happened before I don’t want

to get in there and decide if some

people have crossed the line that means

go too far like with negativity or

insults there are lots of places where

you can read about what happened what’s

happening and commentary on that there

are lots of places where you can go

leave your comments and I do encourage

you to take in different media different

voices discussing what’s happening in

the u.s. I think expanding our

perspective is extremely important right

now so many Americans are very angry and

one of the ways that Americans can

express this is through protest the

right to do this was established in the

First Amendment here’s a quote the right

of the people peaceably to assemble and

petition the government for a redress of

grievances to gather to let it be known

we don’t like the way this is being done

and so in the days since May 25th there

have been protests against policing

policies and racism we’ll talk about

racism in a minute large groups of

people are gathering marching holding

signs chanting and some of those

protests have ended in destruction so a

riot is different from a protest in that

it’s when a group turns violent burning

things for example and then looting is

when people break into storefronts and

steal what’s there and right now both

riots and looting are happening in

addition to the peaceful

emotionally-charged

protests the amount of people looting or

causing destruction is much smaller than

the groups that are peacefully

protesting

and at least in Philadelphia where I

live the writing has largely subsided

though the protests continue this is due

in part to a curfew a curfew is a time

at which you must be inside

lots of teenagers have curfews imposed

on them by their parents but

occasionally a city will have an issue

where it will issue a curfew where it

asks all citizens to remain at home

after a certain hour for us that’s 6

p.m. right now these protests and riots

are bringing to the forefront of the

American conversation the deep hurt and

wrongs caused by racism there was a

study done on the use of police force

against black people in Minneapolis over

the last five years and it was found

that police force against black people

was used seven times more than police

force against white people

racism is defined as prejudice

discrimination or antagonism directed

against someone of a different race

based on the belief that one’s own race

is superior that racial differences

produce an inherent superiority of a

particular race a white supremacist is a

person who believes that the white race

is inherently superior to other races

and that white people should have

control over people of other races now

the policy and doctrines of the United

States of America state that all men and

women are created equal but due to

racism and systemic racism that’s not

how life plays out systemic racism is

also known as institutional racism what

is it it’s different than individual

racism which is easier to see and

understand a quote from Black Power the

politics of liberation gives two

examples to show the difference between

individual racism and institutional

racism this is a quote when white

terrorists bomb a black church and kill

five children that is an act of

individual racism widely deplored by

most segments of the society but when in

that same City Birmingham Alabama

500 black babies die

year because of lack of proper food

shelter and medical facilities and

thousands more are destroyed and maimed

physically emotionally and

intellectually because of conditions of

poverty and discrimination in the black

community that is a function of

institutional racism

the ISM suffix is used to create a noun

showing an action or practice principles

doctrines we have racism ageism sexism

ableism these all mean discrimination

against against older people women and

discrimination in favor of able-bodied

people but not all isms mean

discrimination you have baptism a

practice in the Christian Church of

sprinkling water on or immersing someone

in water symbolizing purification and

admission into the Christian Church you

have activism the action of campaigning

to bring about political or social

change

there are over 800 words in English with

the ISM suffix but the one most

prominent in American conversation right

now is racism and how as a nation we can

recognize it understand it and grow to a

place beyond it next week we will

continue our summer mission of learning

English with movies and the movie we’ll

be looking at is a star is born Lady

Gaga is going to help you understand how

Americans use reductions and linking in

a way that can help you understand

Americans better and also be more easily

understood when you’re speaking English

thank you all so much for joining me

here I love teaching you English I make

new videos on the English language every

Tuesday and I invite you to subscribe

we’d love to have you as a part of our

community that’s it and thanks so much

for using Rachel’s English