Instead, he said, it was time for Americans to recognize “the repeated violation” of the rights of Black Americans who didn’t get “an urgent and adequate response from American institutions” in a statement posted on the George W.

The 43rd president noted that “it remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country.”.

Bush is the second president, after an essay Monday by Barack Obama, to speak out about Floyd, 46, a Black man who died last week after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed on the ground.

Bush said that “lasting justice will only come by peaceful means,” adding that “looting is not liberation, and destruction is not progress.”

Bush said for that to happen will ”require a consistent, courageous, and creative effort” and that Americans need to understand the experiences of their neighbors and “treat them as equals, in both protection and compassion.”

He said if Americans apply empathy, shared commitment, bold action “and a peace rooted in justice, I am confident that together, Americans will choose the better way.”