“What do we want? Justice!”: Why the George Floyd Protests Cannot Simply be a Moment but a Movement
In the aftermath of the police killing of an unarmed African-American man, protests have occurred throughout the U.S. and around the world. On May 25, 46-year-old George Floyd was arrested and his head pressed to the ground by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. The images and videos of the protests draw parallels to civil rights protests in the 1960s and 1970s. As people now return to a sense of normalcy and resume posting their regular social media content, we must remember this cannot simply be a moment but a continued movement to seek justice for Floyd and the countless other lives lost to police brutality.
Racism is not just a past reality, but a present existence for myself and many other African- Americans. Throughout my over 20 years of living, the majority of my racist experiences have occurred in college. Attending a PWI (predominantly white institution) for three years of undergraduate and now as a graduate student, I have been the only African-American in the classroom more times than I can count. As a student-athlete, my swim coach directed an insensitive joke towards me. “If you take off MLK day for practice, I’ll take off St. Patty’s Day,” my coach said. He knew Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday for all Americans. A day to honor a man who advocated for equality for African-Americans in this country and was assassinated because of his work. I’ve had classmates when asked about their opinions and views on Trayvon Martin and Freddie Gray say, “I don’t remember what happened.” I, however, vividly remember being sick to my stomach for both of these tragedies as that easily could have been myself or my brothers.
Not even the one year I attended an HBCU (historically black colleges and universities) was I able to escape the fear of simply being black in America. I’ll never forget checking my school email and reading a student who was killed in the early morning hours at a bus stop on a nearby college campus. I frantically texted my friends and classmates, all while hoping the email was a mistake. The young man who attended my HBCU was stabbed to death by a white college student just three days before graduation. I cried from the realization yet again it could have been me visiting my friends or cousin on the same campus.
The current protesting, donating, and posting on social media is draining but is now needed more than ever. As a result of the protests many changes have already been enacted, but the fight against the injustice of police brutality must continue. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days. The first African-American U.S. President Barack Obama was the 44th president. The two examples serve as a reminder that real lasting change takes time and we cannot give up. We must remember that just as the enslaved ancestors fought for the rights many African-Americans have today, we must continue to do the same. As a result of the current agency, future generations will hopefully not share in our same experiences of racism and police brutality.
