REPORTAGE
>> Buried earlier this week, George Floyd died in Minneapolis; he was born in North Carolina, but it was in Houston, Texas that he grew up and spent most of his life. It was "at home", and Europe 1 therefore invites you to dive into its life and its neighborhood, which says so much about the situation of African-Americans in the United States. Let us follow our correspondent Xavier Yvon in the streets of the Third Ward, the 3rd district, that of George Floyd, to understand why the latter took this symbolic dimension of racial inequalities.
The "Third Ward", district of George Floyd
The Third Ward is the historic black district of Houston which saw the birth in particular of the singer Beyoncé. George Floyd, he moved small with his mother in one of the pockets of poverty in the 3rd Ward, the Cuney Homes. I will first take you to a mini-market, which is the meeting point of the locals, the Scott Food Mart , a decrepit building placed on a crossroads next to wooden houses which sometimes have neither water nor electricity.
© Xavier Yvon / Europe 1
People come here to buy a soda or an ice cream to face the sweltering heat of South Texas. Small groups meet in the shade of the trees to listen to music, we play bundles of dollars with dice on an improvised cardboard table. One of the walls of the supermarket is a memorial: the inhabitants who die have their names inscribed on a brick. "It is a place to gather, especially for those who cannot afford to go to the cemetery", explains Kim, the creator of this kind of war memorial, which is called here "the Wall ", the wall. If there is a heart drawn next to a name, it is for a death by firearms, but there are also accidents and natural deaths.
The name of George Floyd was added on the next wall which was empty: a large fresco was drawn on the whole height, with the now known face of George Floyd, on a blue background, with wings of angels, and his nickname in large letters: "Big Floyd", raised in the 3rd Ward. There are flowers, balloons and we come to take a picture ...
© Xavier Yvon / Europe 1
Childhood in single-parent families and below the poverty line
The locals present tell me that the small burgers restaurant run by George Floyd's mother was right across the street. She was a local figure who died two years ago - her name is written on one of the bricks.
"She raised us," says Eddy Barlow, a friend of George Floyd and his little brother. "George Floyd's family was like a village to all of us, because his mother had a restaurant. She gave us food when we came to her house, was always cooking. 'Come in, I'll feed you' .. . ", he remembers. "If you didn't know where to go, where to lay your head at night, you could sleep at Miss Cissy's, as we called her. Her mom was always happy, generous, full of love. And George, he was the same in his mentality, his state of mind, thanks to his mother. "
69% of the families here live below the poverty line, and this was the case for the Floyd family. "99% of the kids here grow up in a single parent family, and if the mom works all day to put food on the table, she can't take care of her kids," says Eddy. "And if there are no programs, no opportunities ... What do they do? The same as friends, drugs, trying to sell drugs to get some money and help mom to pay the bills. "
"The people in power don't come to these places, they don't know what it's like to grow up here, to live with gunfire, not to have enough to eat ...", adds Xavier. "I haven't had a good education myself ... They don't know what it's like to have your back to the wall all the time."
>> READ ALSO - George Floyd's uncle confides in Europe 1: "We must make a difference"
Eddy served as my guide in the neighborhood: he is highly respected. He is the coach of the basketball team of the neighboring high school, a tall athletic guy, a shaved head, a beard and a broad smile. I met him on the neighborhood basketball court with his rusty baskets, placed in the middle of the 2-story brick buildings, the low-cost housing where George Floyd grew up, and his name is now written in paint under the rusty baskets. He made his first dribbles here until he became an excellent basketball player, and an inspiration for Eddy, a few years younger than George Floyd.
© Xavier Yvon / Europe 1
"He was one of my models when I was young, because he was a top athlete. Many of us admired him, wanted to be like him. It was the first I saw having a scholarship for university thanks to sport. It was like "did you have a scholarship? you're going to Florida? Hey man, I want to do that too! But you can man, keep playing, you're good" ... ", Eddy recalls.
"He was always positive with me; it gave me inspiration, I thought I could do it too. I too had a basketball scholarship to play at a university in Texas and then I have been a professional player abroad for 13 years, in Germany, Hungary, Ukraine. And now I'm a coach and teacher in high school right there. I wanted to come back here, and do like George did for many of us. : give back to my community, and show young people that there are possibilities, give them a chance, like George did for me. "
The desire to make a difference
George Floyd's career after university has not been as exemplary: he returns from college without finishing his studies, falls into delinquency in the neighborhood, and ends up going to prison for 4 years. When it comes out, it's with the desire to do well. He helps for example to organize masses in the open air on the famous basketball court, "the church in the middle of bricks", as Najila calls it. "Yes, he had a criminal record, yes he had been in prison, but when I met him, he had gone beyond that," said the latter.
"The George I knew had all the scars of life that allowed him to speak from experience. He could say to young people of 13, 14, 15 years old: 'Hey! This is not the right path, I l "followed and this is the wrong direction." The George Floyd I knew argued for a change. He lived a life with all the stereotypes imposed on a black man: poverty, the ghetto, injustice systemic. I mean, look where we are! "
So how do we change the game, move the lines? What do George Floyd's friends plan to do now? Honor his memory of course, and the best way to do it is to be like him, they say, to be a " difference maker ", the one who makes the difference. When I met them, Eddy and his friends were setting up tables and chairs on the famous basketball court, with envelopes, forms and pens to encourage residents to register on the electoral roll.
© Xavier Yvon / Europe 1
"I was thinking about what I could do to bring about change. A lot of us went to demonstrate, that's for sure ...", says Eddy, "but if we don't understand that we have to use our right to vote, all these laws, all these government decisions, it will never change, because we will keep the same types in office who do not care about our rights and what is right for us. "
And besides, people came to register, including a 40-year-old man who never voted in his life, but who this time decided that if he did nothing, he was part of the problem. And that he said to me, "I understood it thanks to George Floyd".