LONDON, England (AP) — Just like the novel coronavirus, racism pays no attention to borders.

Across the world, people representing a broad spectrum of society have marched as one to protest racial injustice and police brutality at home and abroad.

Despite the risks posed by possibly the biggest public health hazard in a century, they still put their marching boots on and geared up for a long day of chanting.

They sought not just to show solidarity with protesters across the United States following the shocking police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis but also to shine a spotlight on the inequalities that scar their own nations. On May 25, Floyd, a black man, died handcuffed on the ground saying “I can’t breathe” as a white policeman pushed his knee to his neck.

In Australia, tens of thousands highlighted the country’s long mistreatment of Aboriginal people, notably of David Dungay, who died in a prison hospital in 2015 while being restrained by five guards.

“Same story, different soil,” read one banner.

In Britain, one of the world’s top melting pots due to its imperial past, many demonstrators clearly saw parallels between what happened with Floyd and their experiences with British police and authorities. In the 1600s and 1700s, several British port cities grew wealthy transporting slaves to the Americas. On Sunday in Bristol, southwest England, protesters tore down a statute of a slave trader whose company used to brand its victims with the company’s initials on their chests.

In the last decade, the British Government has been called out for its appalling treatment of British Caribbean citizens who came north to rebuild the country after World War II. In the last few months, despite having a National Health Service that is free for all, people from minority groups in Britain face a higher risk of dying from coronavirus than their white counterparts.

“There’s a lot of frustration due to racial discrimination. And we want change for our children and our children’s children, to be able to have equality within the UK, the US, all around the world,” said Andrew Francis, a 37-year-old black man from London.

Across France, people defied police protest bans due to coronavirus concerns to express the depth of their convictions.

Among the crowds Saturday in Paris was Marie Djedje, 14, whose birthday is July 14, the day France commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris in 1789 and the beginning of the French Revolution.