What is justice for George Floyd? We already know what it's not: It's not nine minutes and 29 seconds of begging for his life with a knee on his neck. It's not having the most vulnerable moment of his life go viral for millions of people who look and love like him to see and feel. It's not having his character assassinated in the media and by the very people who killed him and lived to tell the story. It's not almost 10 months of global advocacy followed by a month-long trial.
I can't deny that my jaw released, my shoulders dropped, and the corners of my lips turned upward at the sound of the judge reading: "Guilty. Guilty. Guilty." I called my loved ones and shared their tears, knowing that something about Tuesday's verdict was different. But the truth is nothing about this is justice. While the world cheered, a 16-year-old girl in Ohio named Ma'Khia Bryant was being shot by Columbus Police, and just like that, reality kicked in. And as historian and activist Barbara Ransby pointed out, we can't forget that this week, Florida's governor signed a law that would criminalize the same kind of protests that followed George Floyd's murder, that led to former police officer Derek Chauvin's conviction. "[If] 26 mil ppl had not taken to the streets, we would have seen a very different outcome!" Ransby tweeted. Where is the justice in that?
This guilty verdict came at the expense of Floyd being vilified in death and his family being retraumatized through various testimony. This verdict doesn't change the callous indifference Chauvin had as Floyd called out for his mother, described running out of air and desperately needing reprieve. Instead, according to the prosecution, Chauvin said: "It takes a lot of oxygen to complain." Police in Floyd's Minnesota are still killing, as are others, and new trials are being added to the dockets. We deserve so much more.
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