Rihanna X Black Lives Matter

When George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020, civil rights attorney Ben Crump released a family statement shortly after: ‘The pain that the black community feels over this murder and what it reflects about the treatment of black people in America is raw and is spilling out onto streets across America.’ But it wasn’t just Americans who reacted to the homicide: millions of people around the world began to protest in solidarity. Despite the Coronavirus pandemic locking down most countries, the streets began to fill with demonstrations, defying restrictions. The internet united communities and they began to react in all ways possible.

Rihanna’s speech at the NAACP Image Awards in February of that year, where she spoke about ‘the Michael Brown Juniors and Atatiana Jeffersons of the world’, had been a presentiment of what was about to shatter the Floyd families’ lives. She was there to accept The President’s Award from Derek Johnson for her ongoing philanthropic work and rose to the distinguished honour by wearing a purple couture gown from Givenchy’s spring 2020 collection, designed by the artistic director at the time, Claire Waight Keller.