Special Pulitzer Prize Citation for Darnella Frazier.
The girl, then XNUMX, had filmed George Floyd's absurd death, suffocated by a policeman on May 25, 2020.
Its the denunciation of racism, together with the reports on the Coronavirus pandemic, was the most awarded topic in the 2021 edition of the United States' greatest honor for journalism.
Let's find out more about this year's Pulitzer Prize and, thanks to the special mention to Darnella Frazier, let's retrace what happened on May 25 last year.
Pulitzer Prize 2021: racism and pandemic
The Pulitzer Prize, which each year chooses the best of American journalism, wanted to give a special mention to Darnella Frazier.
The then seventeen-year-old Darnella was a few meters from Goerge Floyd, an African American like her, killed by suffocation by the (white) policeman Derek Chauvin, on May 25, 2020.
The case, on which we will return, allowed to assign another recognition: that to the staff of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis for "how he covered up George Floyd's death" and the "consequences that ensued".
The Pulitzer annually awards not only journalistic inquiries but also literature and musical compositions. And again on the subject of defense and amplification of minority rights, The Night Watchman, the biography of Malcolm X written by Louise Erdrich, was chosen as the best novel. The book will be released in Italy next autumn for Feltrinelli.
The New York Times won for the quality of its information on the pandemic, and the Associated Press for the best photographic coverage on the same subject.
Darnella Frazier and the special Pulitzer quote
The Pulitzer Special Mention was awarded to the very young Darnella Frazier. For “bravely filming the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists' search for truth and justice ”.
Darnella's video really went around the planet. One wonders what path justice would have taken if the girl had not been there, and if it had not produced such irrefutable evidence.
The words of Darnella Frazier
Darnella Frazier said: “I was only 17 years old. It was a normal day and I was walking with my 9 year old cousin to the corner store. I was not prepared for what I was about to see. I didn't know my life was going to change forever. What I saw has changed the way I understand life. It made me realize how dangerous it is to be black in America"
And she added: "There were nights when I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not interacting physically and not saving his life."
The assassination of George Floyd
We recall that around 20 pm on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis, the forty-six-year-old African American Goerge Perry Floyd was killed by a police officer during an arrest. A store clerk accused Floyd of attempting to purchase a fake $ 20 bill.
Darnella Frazier's video shows agent Derek Chauvin immobilizing Floyd, keeping his knee on the victim's neck for more than nine minutes.. Floyd will die shortly after in the hospital.
Black Lives Matter
The episode, which went around the world thanks to Darnella's film, aroused great indignation.
And it gave awareness to Black Lives Matter, an international movement committed to the fight against racism. Black Lives Matter was born in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who shot XNUMX-year-old African American Trayvon Martin, killing him.
Today the movement receives the support of public figures and above all professional sportsmen. The symbolic gesture, which some national teams involved in the ongoing European football championship are also making, is to kneel during the national anthems.
Black Lives Matter: 8.5" x 11" notebook 120 pages lined and...
- What G Said (Author)
The symbolic value of the Pulitzer to Darnella Frazier
The Pulitzer Prize to Darnella Frazier has a high symbolic value for at least two reasons.
First of all, because it rewards a courageous gesture, showing that a large part of the United States knows how to openly take sides against a racism that, unfortunately, is still deeply rooted in those latitudes (and beyond).
The other element is of a technical nature. Today the way of making information has changed, the languages and also the communication channels are changing. It is therefore appreciable that the quality and expressive power of a video shot by a non-journalist has been recognized.
On the other hand, the Pulitzer is not new to looking with curiosity at new forms of communication: in 2010 the prize was awarded for the first time to a website.
It remains a bitter note. At least on Internet sites in Italian, the news of the Pulitzer to Darnella Frazier almost never shows the name of the author of the film in the title.
As for not only racism, but also more or less creeping machismo, there is still a long way to go.
