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John Boyega gives powerful speech at Hyde Park Black Lives Matter protest



Star Wars actor John Boyega has given an emotional speech at a Hyde Park demonstration about the death of George Floyd in the US.

Boyega joined thousands of protestors in Hyde Park in a peaceful demonstration in support of Black Lives Matter.

The actor, who is best known for playing Finn in the recent Star Wars trilogy, referenced two other black Americans who controversially died in the US and the murder of Stephen Lawrence in the UK.


“We are a physical representation of our support for George Floyd,” he told the demonstration. “We are a physical representation of our support for Sandra Bland. We are a physical representation of our support for Trayvon Martin. We are a physical representation of our support for Stephen Lawrence.”

(Evening Standard)

He added: “I’m speaking to you from my heart. Look, I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this, but f*** that.

“Today is about innocent people who were halfway through their process, we don’t know what George Floyd could have achieved, we don’t know what Sandra Bland could have achieved, but today we’re going to make sure that won’t be an alien thought to our young ones.”

He told the crowds: “Every black person in here remembered when another person reminded you that you were black.

“So none of you out there, all those protesters on the other side, protesting against what we want to do, protesting against what we want to try and achieve, burn you, this is so vital.

The actor continued: “I need you to understand how painful this s**t is. I need you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing and that isn’t the case anymore, that was never the case anymore.”

Boyega urged his fellow demonstrators to “keep this as peaceful as possible,” adding: “They want us to mess up, they want us to be disorganised but not today.”

Thousands of protestors descended on Hyde Park on Wednesday amid international outrage at the death of Floyd.

The 46-year-old African-American died in police custody in Minneapolis last week after a white police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.

With reporting by Press Association



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