One Year Later: The Murder Of George Floyd at 38th And Chicago
We have reached a year since Derek Chauvin kneeled on the neck of George Floyd eventually killing him. It feels like it was yesterday when it happend. I am sure many people here in the United States and across the world feel the same way. The anger; the tensions; the disbelief; the hurt; the pain. These are all experiences many of us felt as the world watched a video of George Floyd pleading, only to lose his precious life.
Here we are one year later. Here we are dealing with the understanding again, that we Black people have had it the worst since we have been in this country. It has been hundreds of years of anti-Blackness, of state sanctioned violence we have been subject to in the so-called greatest country on Earth. As George took his last breath, as the trial took place that found Derek Chauvin guilty of three charges, the world knew the United States has always been a place that has never addressed in a healthy and honest way its racism, its anti-Blackness.
On 38th and Chicago in Minneapolis, MN on May 25th, 2020 all of the reality, the history of the torturing of Black people in this country was clear and present. George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Derek Chauvin represents so many lost Black lives whose names we keep on saying, whose names we will never forget. From past to present from present to past the murder of George Floyd is an endless song playing out in urban stretches in the United States. The travesties continue.
Where are we heading now? Like the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked years ago, “Where do we go from here?” Is not the path obvious from here? In plain sight are the policies that need to be created; the laws that need to be passed; the economic equity that needs to be created; the educational equity that needs to come to pass; the housing and bank loans Black people need to catch up with the white majority; the criminal justice system is beyond flawed; that police unions are too powerful and we need to end qualified immunity for police officers. Imagine if we lived in the United States with all of these things in effect.
I applaud all of the major corporations that have committed to being anti-racist. That is indeed a start. But we need more than these anti-racist stances. We need major corporations who have the power to help change this country to take bolder stances. We, Black people, need you to do everything in your power to push this country into becoming as antiracist and as equitable for Black people as possible. We will not achieve anti-racism 100% but we can come close — so close racists who still exist in this country will feel uncomfortable being racist.
This is what young people on the front lines are fighting for. In many of their circles they already exist without racism. They are checking themselves, their language, their misconceptions and misunderstandings by the second, by the minute. It is within their circles a truly anti-racist, equitable, and justice-centered world exists. We must fight for them too because outside factions do not want to see this. They are afraid of what is coming. But as long as we stand unified, there is nothing that can stop their force or a universal movement all about uplifting Blackness.
May the Floyd family receive all of the justice they deserve. May their meeting with President Biden be so moving and powerful that he finds ways to undercut and undermine state sanctioned racism and violence upon Black people and people of color. It will take meetings like that to clear paths towards a more just country, a more just world. May 38th And Chicago become a meeting ground where the most honest conversations about racism in the United States take place. May there be healing at that sacred space also.
It is now when we turn this country around. The time is now that we take the death of George Floyd to city halls across the country and to the White House with actions leading to effectively eradicating systemic racism. We owe it to the spirit of George Floyd and to his family.
