George Floyd should be alive, this is what I know to be true. He should be alive. 9 minutes 29 seconds.

His family won’t get him back. His daughter will still grow up without her father. A guilty verdict will not change centuries of violence, it won’t stop police from murdering Black people.

I will still be filled with fear every time I drive.

Either we declare, finally, that Black Lives Matter and injustice can’t continue, or we continue on as we are- as we have always been. Either we do the work and create a world where George Floyd would have never been murdered or we will ultimately all be destroyed.

Did his life matter?

I went back to watch some videos of the devastation and fall out from this summer following George Floyd’s murder to remind myself what is at stake. Last summer we grieved together. We marched together, we took the streets together. We asked the question, will Black lives ever matter in this country?

Black Lives DO Matter

I feared a guilty verdict wouldn’t be reached. The system has failed us over and over again. But, I am just as afraid that this guilty verdict will lead to many thinking we no longer have to confront the epidemic of police violence in America. The police have already killed 300 people in 2021, y’all just didn’t see the videos. When policing doesn’t work for Black folks, then policing doesn’t work for ANYBODY.

A guilty verdict doesn’t change white supremacy.

Does it ever end with justice? It hasn’t yet, but one day it will.

We won’t stop demanding accountability, we won’t stop demanding the abolition of systems that kill us.

Praying and rolling up my sleeves… and I want to remind you of what I wrote on Friday, it’s ok not to be ok.

To the Black folks reading this, I see you, I love you.