Former Reading FC goalkeeper Shaka Hislop is asking members of the public to ‘call our leadership and political classes to task’ two years on from the murder of George Floyd.

Mr Floyd was 46 when police officers knelt on his neck after arresting him on suspicion of paying with counterfeit money.

His death sparked outrage and led to weeks of protests in Minneapolis and the world over, with football teams kneeling before matches since in protest.

Hislop, founder of ‘Show Racism the Red Card’, released a video message today, two years to the day since the event, calling for more to be done by the powers that be.

 

 

On Twitter, he said: “Today, May 25, marks two years since the brutal murder of George Floyd. The taking of a black life at the hands of law enforcement sparked a global civil rights movement then we had not seen for at least half a century. While the protests have ceded, what that moment asked us to be has not changed. Many of us have stepped up and realised that change, represented that change, in our personal and professional spaces. But still our leadership and political classes have let us down. They have not delivered on who that message asked them to be.

“I am now calling on you call them to task in not just representing what 2020 meant to each of us, but how we intend to shape the world to be equal for all moving forward.”

 

READ MORE: Reading FC icon awarded Freedom of Newcastle

 

The Trinidad and Tobago international spent two years with the Royals before spending more prominent spells in the Premier League with Newcastle United and West Ham.

It was on Tyneside where he helped co-create ‘Show Racism the Red Card’ and he has since been awarded the Freedom of Newcastle for his work.