Let’s Unpack This

George Floyd Is Still Gone and the Police Are Still Killing Us

On the one-year anniversary of Floyd’s death, has policing changed in any meaningful way?

Three brown-skinned people wear t-shirts bearing the images of Black people slain for no good reason yet blamed for their own deaths by White supremacists. Illustration by Lindsay Bailey

Derek Chauvin’s conviction left many people conflicted. On one hand, a jury of his peers held Chauvin accountable for his actions in killing George Floyd. On the other hand, Black people across the country exhaled. A country with an addiction to denying us justice did the unthinkable. It convicted an officer for killing a Black man. But the post-trial exhale couldn’t rightfully be considered one of relief. Well, maybe it was a sigh of relief but one lacking any actual comfort.

“My emotional fortitude requires managing traumatic news to ensure I can write a weekly column about America failing Black people while also sleeping peacefully at night.”

I’d write about my emotional investment in the trial except I had none. At best, the video was all the evidence required to do the right thing. At worst, the jury would allow the glimmer of a police badge to blind them and manipulate legal methodology ensuring Chauvin walked, relatively, free. My apathy toward the trial is borne from…