Conservative pundit Candace Owens has come under fire for her controversial stance on the tragic death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by police in Minneapolis, on May 25. In a Facebook Live video, titled “Confession: I DO NOT support George Floyd and I refuse to see him as a martyr”, the outspoken Donald Trump supporter declared she doesn’t support the depiction of George as a “martyr” in the wake of national outcry and protests.
“We are being sold a lot of lies at the detriment to the Black community, at the detriment to the White community and at the detriment to America as a whole. So, I want to come out and say that I do not support George Floyd and the media’s depiction of him as a martyr for Black America,” she said in the June 3 video, which has been shared more than 360,000 times.
I don’t know why I wasted my time watching Candace Owens’ video on George Floyd.
It was incredibly disgraceful and disgusting.
The gist of it was that black people should stop celebrating the “worst among us” like drug addicts and criminals.
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) June 4, 2020
Twitter users were quick to clap back at Candace, with many brandishing her Facebook rant as “horrible” while people around the world mourn the loss of George Floyd. “She wants to criminalize the man and minimize the movement,” one user said, referencing Floyd, while another user wrote, “She is generalizing and making all Blacks look bad. She has a voice that Whites listen to, and take heed to.”
A vocal critic of the Black Lives Matter movement, Candace claimed the 46-year-old Floyd, was “high” at the time of his death, and went on to detail his history of minor infractions with the law, including charges relating to drugs and theft with a firearm, per the New York Post. “Everyone is pretending that this man lived a heroic lifestyle. We are embarrassing in that regard. Nobody wants to tell the truth in Black America. Our biggest problem is us,” she said. “For whatever reason it has become fashionable over the last five or six years for us to turn criminals into heroes overnight. It is something I find despicable. George Floyd was not an amazing person. George Floyd is being upheld as an amazing human being.”
So disgusting. Shame on you @RealCandaceO. 👇 https://t.co/JMTxx9SgLk
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 4, 2020
Despite her controversial comments, she said she wasn’t trying to defend Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who is now facing upgraded charges of second degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after he pinned George to the ground with his knee. “The family of George Floyd deserves justice for the way that he died but I also am not going to accept the narrative that this is the best the Black community has to offer,” Candace said. “I have no apologies to make. George Floyd is not my martyr. He can be yours.”
Social media users were quick to criticize her comments. “George Floyd never asked to be the martyr either, but that’s her words,” one person commented on her controversial Facebook video, while another user said, “Imagine having the motivation to discredit a man who was brutally asphyxiated at the hands of police over a petty crime.”
Many also called her out for bringing up his previous run-ins with the law. “I wouldn’t care if he was caught committing 5 crimes he didn’t deserve to die like an animal in the street. He may not been amazing, however he was a human being,” one person commented on her live video.