Eulogizing George Floyd as a ‘hero’ and ‘martyr’ is undermining the cause
George Floyd has been called a hero and a martyr. A political martyr is “someone who suffers persecution and/or death for advocating, renouncing, refusing to renounce, and/or refusing to advocate a political belief or cause.” You can stretch the definition to included someone for being persecuted just for being who they are (so in the case of George Floyd, that would make him a martyr because he was persecuted for being black). But already, this is unsteady ground, because martyrdom is normally thought of as the result of a conscious act. George Floyd could not stop being black even if he wanted to.
Now for the other word, ‘hero’. A hero is above all an inspirational figure, someone who possesses highly admirable qualities, or commits an act that is courageous or of outstanding positive significance. This is a dangerous word to use to describe someone, because it opens up the person to tremendous scrutiny. When Kobe Bryant died, even though he was the definition of a hero, there were some people writing articles about how he did not deserve the term for some shortcomings in his personal life. Similar “think pieces” have been written about literally every single person who was significant in American history (e.g., Lincoln, Washington, Kennedy, Obama). There is no requirement in the definition of a hero that they have to be a saint, and yet, these “think pieces” get written. A person can be a hero to some and not to others, being a hero does not have to be a universally accepted fact.
By calling George Floyd a hero, his past is brought into scrutiny. This includes a long arrest record (mostly for drug possession), and possibly one instance of a violent crime. It also brings to focus the fact that he was committing a crime (forgery worth $20) minutes before he was murdered in cold blood. But none of this is relevant to the big picture. The big picture is the institutional racism that needs to be overthrown. Calling George Floyd a hero just muddies the water. George Floyd is a victim of police brutality and institutional racism. His brutal murder is a tragedy and a crime regardless of whether he is a hero.
We need to stop the impulse to relabel victims as heroes. It undermines the tragedy and injustice of being a victim. We see this even for victims of mass shootings and terrorist acts. They get called heroes too, even though they did not choose their grisly fate of being murdered in a pointless act of violence. Victims deserve to be remembered, and above all, they deserve justice. We do not need to relabel them as heroes to achieve this. Advocates for a movement need to resist the temptation to use words incorrectly in an attempt to strengthen their message. Not only does such misuse not strengthen the case, it opens up the message to being undermined by their opponents.
