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
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we’d love to have you as a part of our
community that’s it and thanks so much
for using Rachel’s English