Gianna, George Floyd’s 11-year-old daughter, and her family members disclosed the heartbreaking truth of the bullying she has experienced at home in Texas five years after Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police.
Gianna went viral in 2020 when, at the age of six, she sat on the shoulders of her father’s close friend, former NBA great Stephen Jackson, and exclaimed to the audience, “Daddy changed the world!”
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According to her relatives, Gianna has been a victim of school bullies who harass her by bringing up “the nasty things” people say about her father.
“They’ve teased her at school,” a column in the Minnesota Star-Tribune read. “They know about her father and the nasty things bad people say about him, so they repeat those words.”
When asked how life was without her father, Gianna acknowledged that “It’s hard.”
After arresting Floyd on suspicion of purchasing cigarettes with a fake $20 money, police officer Derek Chauvin fatally pushed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds outside a convenience shop in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.
Roxie, Gianna’s mother, admitted that she struggles with how to react, choosing between urging her daughter to fight for herself and going to the school to get answers.
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Floyd’s death provoked worldwide protests against police violence and racial inequality.
In April 2021, Chauvin was found guilty of Floyd’s murder and given a sentence of over 22 years in prison.
Meanwhile, critics and commentators have repeatedly used Floyd’s personal history – his previous addiction, criminal record, and the toxicology results from his autopsy – to discredit the movement that his death sparked.
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