Of Race as Space: Distinguishing Between Autonomous Bodies and Occupied Bodies in the Murder of George Floyd

This chapter analyzes George Floyd’s murder, perpetrated by a White police officer in Minnesota in 2020. Through the analysis of this event, this chapter distinguishes between the Body-Body and the Body-Space. The former is an autonomous body with which the person enjoys full moral and political autonomy, whereas the latter has the characteristic of being public. The Body-Space is a public space subject to the control and violence of institutions. This distinction allows for the comprehension of the necropolitical mechanisms within American society, in which the Body-Space has served as the historical apparatus to exercise control over the non-white population.