Kanye West has reportedly donated $2 million to the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, as reported by CNN. The donation includes legal fees for the families of Arbery and Taylor as well as donations to Black-owned businesses in West’s home city of Chicago and other cities affected.
Representatives of Kanye West have also told CNN that he’s set up a 529 education plan, to cover the entirety of George Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter, Gianna Floyd’s college tuition.
Ahmaud Arbery is an African American man who was shot and killed while jogging in Brunswick, Georgia. The three white men responsible have been arrested.
Breonna Taylor was an EMT who was killed by at least eight gunshots back in March when three police officers forcefully entered her apartment. The FBI has opened an investigation into her death following protests.
Normani shared a statement via Instagram regarding the deaths. “I have had literal nightmares of the men in my life being taken from me similar to the video that we’ve all seen…In just these past 3 weeks alone, it has been murder (Ahmaud Arbery) after murder (Breonna Taylor) after murder (George Floyd), and that has only been the ones that have been recorded and told,” she wrote.
Kanye West, an open Trump supporter, has thus far been quiet about the Black Lives Matter movement and protests across the country in the wake of Floyd’s killing and the deaths of other Black people at the hands of police.
His wife, Kim Kardashian West, made a statement this past Sunday saying, “For years, with every horrific murder of an innocent black man, woman, or child, I have always tried to find the right words to express my condolences and outrage but the privilege I am afforded by the color of my skin has often left me feeling like this is not a fight that I can truly take on as my own. Not today, not anymore. Like so many of you, I am angry. I am more than angry. I am infuriated and I am disgusted.”
Australians will also protest across the country this weekend, in solidarity with protests in the United States and calling for change on our own soil, centring around Australia’s own history of violence against Black and First Nations people. You can find a list of major protests around the country here.
