Where Is Justice? Have You Seen Her?
A Reflection on the Year of Floyd
On May 25, 2020, we bore witness to state-sanctioned brutality claim its latest victim. In agony, George Floyd repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe,” and cried out for his mother while Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds¹. The murder of George further catalysed the Second Civil Rights Movement, the scenes of which were a phantasmagoria of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
George’s death did not mean a moratorium on the murder and maiming of Black people. The truth is extrajudicial violence preceded him and it continued thereafter, as evidenced in the case of Daunte Wright².
The Year of Floyd saw “anti-Black racism” and “Black Lives Matter” become vogue. The supposedly radical words were finally seen for what they are: an encapsulation of what we have lived and are living, and the bare minimum we continue to ask for — that we matter. Society must dispense with the notion that this is radical. It is simply right.
The Year of Floyd saw the conversion of the ignorant and the indifferent into accomplices, active bystanders, allies, co-conspirators and upstanders and provided a newfound cause for the slacktivists. We should be careful to applaud those who stand on soapboxes when convenient but flee when the going gets tough. One cannot be woke on Sunday and a defector from human rights on Monday. Blackness and Black skin are a 24/7 ordeal.
The Year of Floyd saw organisations, collectively, give millions to Black organisations. While the donations are welcome, we should not be quick to grant absolution while Black people are still being oppressed in their workplaces. Organisations must commit to systemic change that allows Black employees to thrive and build a real relationship with the Black community that is not intended for public relations purposes.
The Year of Floyd was the year of bounty for many non-Black people and organisations raking in dough as anti-racism, belonging, decolonisation, diversity, equity and inclusion professionals. They are no better than the ambulance chasers who wait to profit from Black pain, Black trauma and Black death. We cannot absolve ourselves of hypocrisy if we do not point out Black folks who have made themselves experts on the above subjects but have only their lived experiences to offer.
The Year of Floyd was governments placating Black people with “We see you. We hear you.” These words of depth that were meant to acknowledge suffering have been bastardised by politicians. Where is the urgency of the Government of Canada to implement the calls to action³ from the Parliamentary Black Caucus? We must put our foot down and reject the woke performances that give Black people hope and string them along only to result in time wasted and their situation unchanged.
Liberals in power in both Canada and the United States of America have promised big changes for Black people. We are still waiting. Apple’s spinning wheel of death holds more promise than their benevolence.
As we watched and listened with bated breath, the jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin handed out verdicts of guilty on all three charges. For the first time in a long time, we had to shift from the trained reflexive responses of anger, disappointment, dismay, frustration, sadness and shock to jubilation. For the first time in a long time, we took a collective exhale; we breathed again. The reality is that this victory was but a blip in the greater war for equality, justice and liberation. The other officers involved have not yet had their day in court. We must not be so complacent to think that the conviction of Derek Chauvin is the birthing of a post-racial society.
Justice has to mean more than putting an officer behind bars for flouting his training. Canada and the United States of America are yet to end the war on drugs, expunge criminal records for the possession of cannabis, introduce substantive police reform, and protect voting rights.
Where is justice? Have you seen her?
¹ Bogel-Burroughs, N. (2021). Prosecutors say Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd for 9 minutes 29 seconds, longer than initially reported. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/us/derek-chauvin-george-floyd-kneel-9-minutes-29-seconds.html
² Goyette, J. & Salcedo, A. (2021). Police fatally shoot man, 20, in suburban Minneapolis, sparking protests. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/11/daunte-wright-brooklyn-center-minnesota/
³ Parliamentary Black Caucus. (2020). Statement by the Parliamentary Black Caucus. Senator Ratna Omidvar. http://www.ratnaomidvar.ca/statement-by-the-parliamentary-black-caucus/
