A video showing a group chanting "I can't breathe" while a man blew out the candles of a George Floyd cake quickly garnered negative attention as it went viral on social media.
The video was reportedly taken during a birthday party for Daniel Elías Injoque Zugbi, a law student at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) in Lima, Peru, according to El País.
Zugbi is seen carrying a cake with unlit candles and a picture of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered by former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin in 2020. Floyd's death sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, a social campaign fighting racism and police brutality against Black people.
Instead of singing happy birthday, partygoers mockingly chanted Floyd's final words: "I can't breathe."
The first person to share the video, X user @gaseosita666, asked if anyone knew the names of the "racists" in order to file a complaint.
algun alma caritativa q sepa los nombres de estos racistas de mierda? es para una denuncia, gracias pic.twitter.com/LbM3B0xMwE
— espíritu marxista (@gaseosita666) September 16, 2024
Other users shared their disgust at the group's blatant racism.
Racism truly is a mental illness cause who wakes up one day and thinks 'let me put George Floyd on a birthday cake',
— BruebelliesBoo (@BruebelliesBoo) September 19, 2024
a peruvian especially
are you insane? https://t.co/QaLmbcTz7N
wtf does George Floyd or any black peoples anywhere in the world have to do with peru? Who even came up with this dumb cake idea bunch of begs https://t.co/dsaUaWlewO
— Noir (@Noir_0000000) September 18, 2024
Do you know how sick you have to be to mock the death a stranger who was unjustly killed?
— Cory 🇯🇲 (@justcorym) September 18, 2024
I'm so tired of black ppl and their suffering being the butt of every joke https://t.co/VAYAujWy6w
singing "i cant breathe" as mockery of police brutality for your birthday is a new level of deranged https://t.co/okY7QPQcPi
— kane (@juyeongelical) September 17, 2024
X user @Dariannyyy_ called the group's actions "diabolical" while invoking social justice activist Shaun King.
@shaunking look at this 🥲🥲🥲this is horrible they had a birthday party with a George Floyd cake and chanting I can't breath instead of a happy birthday song ... diabolical https://t.co/eCySxhahKr
— . (@Dariannyyy_) September 18, 2024
The students' university also released a statement condemning their actions. In it, they wrote: "We strongly reject manifestations of hatred, racism and any form of discrimination." Under the statement, X users called for the students to be, at the very least, expelled.
#ComunicadoPUCP | Rechazamos enérgicamente las manifestaciones de odio, racistas y de cualquier forma de discriminación. pic.twitter.com/rSIgKn2hIN
— PUCP (@pucp) September 17, 2024
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