"For Those Feeling Grief, Anger...": Sundar Pichai On Racial Equality

Alphabet Inc and Google chief Sundar Pichai has showed solidarity with the African-American community in the United States amid widespread protests over the on-camera death of an unarmed black man in police custody, and said those feeling grief, anger, sadness and fear are "not alone". He also unveiled on Twitter a black ribbon on Google and YouTube home pages, which, he said, represents his company's support for racial equality.

"Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & others who don't have a voice. For those feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone," he tweeted.

Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery & others who don't have a voice. For those feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone. pic.twitter.com/JbPCG3wfQW

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) May 31, 2020

A video of a handcuffed black man - George Floyd- dying while a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for more than five minutes sparked a furor in the US over police treatment of African-Americans last week.

Officer Derek Chauvin, who was seen kneeling on the victim in the video, was sacked and charged with third-degree murder.

Peaceful protests, seeking a harsher charge for the officer and the arrests of the police personnel present at the spot, soon snowballed into violence. Curfews were imposed on major US cities as clashes over police brutality erupted across America with demonstrators ignoring warnings from President Donald Trump that his government would stop the violent protests "cold."

Minneapolis, the epicenter of the unrest, was gripped by a fifth consecutive night of violence on Saturday with police in riot gear firing tear gas and stun grenades at protesters venting fury at the death of George Floyd.

Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta were among two dozen cities ordering people to stay indoors overnight as more states called in National Guard soldiers to help control the civil unrest not seen in the United States for years.

Twitter, which hid some of the tweets on the violence by President Donald Trump on Saturday, today (Sunday) changed its display picture's colour to black and its description to #BlackLivesMatter.

With inputs from AFP