Sri Lanka, July 9 -- I heard George Floyd's words in my home in Sri Lanka, where my family and I were under curfew. In the days that followed, we saw the pain of his community resonate across the world. I am Japanese - and we are not a culture typically comfortable with public protests - but I saw Floyd's death become a rallying point for my compatriots who took to the streets of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, chanting, "I can't breathe," as they protested police brutality against immigrants and ethnic minorities.
In the middle of a pandemic and global lockdown, the 'Black Lives Matter' movement had struck a chord, and now we could hear it everywhere.
Overnight it seemed "I can't breathe" was no longer limited to a protest against police brutali...