Darnella Frazier, the teenager whose video of George Floyd’s m**de* went viral, fueling massive protests ag-ainst police bru*ali!y around the world last year, has been awarded an honorary Pulitzer Prize. In an announcement Friday afternoon, the Pulitzer Prize board commended Frazier “for courageously recording the mu*d!r of George Floyd,” hi*hlig!ting “the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quests for truth and justice.”
Frazier was just 17 years old on May 25, 2020, when she pull-ed out her cellphone to record Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin k*ee*ing on George Floyd’s neck.
In the words of George’s brother Philonise, the video “changed the world.” “She was the one who recorded a motion cinema picture that set the world on f**e,” he said just over a year later, after the video served as a key piece of evi-den-ce in Chauvin’s trial and conviction.
Frazier would go on to testify in Chauvin’s trial, where she was overcome with emotion as she recalled Floyd’s te*ro* and fe** and pain, which she shared with millions of people via her cellphone.
Congratulations to #DarnellaFrazier. #Pulitzer pic.twitter.com/MdXk1Sspqo
— The Pulitzer Prizes (@PulitzerPrizes) June 11, 2021
In a social media post on the first anniversary of Floyd’s d*at*, she reflected on the moment she filmed, describing a trauma that’s re*erber!ted through every aspect of her life.
“Although this wasn’t the first time I’ve seen a b*** man get k!ll*d at the hands of the police, this is the first time I witne-ssed it happen in front of me,” Frazier wrote. “Right in front of my eyes, a few feet away. I didn’t know this man from a can of paint, but I knew his life mattered. I knew that he was in pain. I knew that he was another B*** man in da-ng-er with no power.”
Frazier said the trauma has manifested in panic and anxiety att-ac-ks, i**om**a, having to leave home over safety concerns, and “closing my eyes at night only to see a man who is brown like me, lifel-ess on the ground.”
“A lot of people call me a hero even though I don’t see myself as one,” she said. “I was just in the right place at the right time. Behind this smile, behind these awards, behind the publicity, I’m a girl trying to heal from something I am reminded of every day.”