America has breathed a sigh of relief: a murder that we saw on video resulted in the conviction of the killer. The justice system worked. So why were we all so apprehensive?
Because it literally took the crime – both against a single man and against our collective humanity – to be filmed, go viral and be seen by hundreds of millions around the globe, spark a new chapter in the fight for Social Justice here in the United States with demonstrations by tens of millions in the streets of cities and towns around our nation and the conclusion of a three-week trial during which we heard far more about the victim’s alleged character deficits than the perpetrator’s more than decade-long record of cruelty and inhumanity supposedly in service to the state.
Or, to make it plain, let’s consider the following question: What does it say about our society and our ‘justice’ system that securing a conviction for a murder that we all saw take place wasn’t a foregone conclusion?
Relieved that the system worked – for once – many have been moved to proclaim this outcome to be “Justice” … and, technically speaking, it may be: the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Justice as “the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments.” It further defines “Just” as “acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good : RIGHTEOUS” and “being what is merited : DESERVED.”
By securing a conviction and thereby subjecting the murderer to an as yet to be determined punishment, this outcome could be considered both morally upright and merited and thus just.
But only in the narrowest of senses because what occurred yesterday was the confirmation of accountability, as we have so much more work to do and so much farther to go to achieve true justice in our society.
Even though this case may have resulted in an appropriate outcome, the realities of life for People of Color – and especially African-Americans – continue to be challenging and, in fact, grim relative to their white fellow citizens. So before you go celebrating this rare but positive outcome and declaring it Justice in the fullest sense, consider the following:
- African-Americans are still three to six times (3x-6x) more likely to be killed by police and 1 in 1,000 of us will be.
- Virtually none of the officers who kill us will be held accountable.
- The ‘Drug War’ has been a war on People of Color and Mass Incarceration continues – phenomena in which our society preys on People of Color and especially African-Americans – as despite the fact that the latter use drugs at about the same – or a lower – rate as whites, and in numerous studies have been found to be less likely to distribute them, African-Americans are five to seven times (5x-7x) more likely to be imprisoned.
- But for Darnella Frazier’s bravery and presence of mind to film this tragedy, George Floyd would’ve been just another anonymous Black man who died at the hands of police, not the painfully symbolic reminder that our country values African-American life so little that a movement called Black Lives Matter is somehow controversial.
- Seven-year-old Gianna Floyd will now forever be without a father.
- George Floyd had to die for his life to matter to us.
This is but a foreshadowing of the work that we have left to do, so celebrate today, perhaps, but realize that ours is a long, long road ahead to make real the promises of our nation – and especially that of Justice – to far too many of our fellow citizens. And though, as the Rev. Dr. Cornel West has reminded us, Justice is what love looks like in public, remember that in order for a little girl’s father to “change the world,” he had to be murdered in front of our very eyes.…
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