Kanye West has recently donated $2 million to the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, whose deaths at the hands of police officers have inspired protests across all 50 US states, as well as Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man who was fatally shot in February.
This money will partly go towards legal fees for Arbery and Taylor’s families, according to CNN. Another part of the donation will fully cover college tuition for Gianna Floyd, the 6 year old daughter of George Floyd.
Both Kanye and Kim Kardashian have been questioned on social media about their relative silence about the nationwide – and worldwide – protests that began last week.
Kim Kardashian has since addressed the killings of Floyd, Arbery, and Taylor in an Instagram post. “For years, with every horrific murder of an innocent black man, woman, or child,” she writes, “I have always tried to find the right words to express my condolences and outrage, but the privilege I am afforded by the color of my skin has often left me feeling like this is not a fight that I can truly take on my own.”
“Not today, not anymore. Like so many of you, I am angry. (...) I am infuriated and I am disgusted.”
“I am exhausted by the heartbreak I feel seeing mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and children suffering because their loved one was murdered or locked away unjustly for being black.”
Kim has also donated, through her businesses, to Black Lives Matter, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the National Urban League, and Color of Change.