RAW in WAR has been moved by the courage and determination of a young African American woman, Darnella Frazier, who – as a citizen journalist, armed only with her mobile phone, on her way to the nearby Cup Foods with her 9-year-old cousin, witnessed and documented one of the most important and high-profile police murders in American history.
At the age of 17, Darnella Frazier helped spark a worldwide movement when she recorded and posted a video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, pressing his knee into the neck of George Floyd. The video she decided to post on Facebook that night triggered huge anti-racism and anti-violence protests in the USA and around the world and changed history. Her video was the one that was used by the police and the prosecutors as the evidence to indict the four police officers who murdered George Floyd. The anti-racism protests that erupted in the USA, following this murder, quickly brought many states to the brink of violent conflict. A 17-year-old had the heart and the courage to show the world the violent murder that she had witnessed – in the hope that justice would be done.
We hope that her brave act may inspire others and that Darnella, despite the pressure and threats she received, will continue to speak out. We also wish that if she chooses to become a professional journalist one day, that she might become the next Anna Politkovskaya of her time and of her generation.
She is a Brave Voice Refusing To Be Silenced and joins a growing RAW community of women activists who speak out against atrocities and violations at great personal risk.
On announcing the special tribute, Belarusian writer and Nobel Prize laureate, Svetlana Alexievich, 2018 Award winner and a member of the 2020 Award Nominations Committee, said:
“A great journalist always begins with a great act. Darnella performed an act which changed the world.”