Not one more

This is a beginning towards accountability.

But we know it is not justice.

We can witness the significance of a guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin.

And know that true justice would be George Floyd at home last night, tucking his baby girl Gianna into bed. Justice would be Ma’Khia Bryant alive and thriving, not murdered by the police when she called them for help.

We can continue to hold these visions of justice.

And hold the heartbreak as this culture of violence claims more victims.

For generations, we have known that it’s not broken systems that led us to this moment, but fixed ones, designed to uphold power at the expense of people’s lives. So many of us have had to endure so much.

And on April 20, our ancestors gathered as Emmett Till’s family watched alongside George Floyd’s family — to witness a degree of accountability they could only have hoped for, for their own son.

This moment matters to Emmett Till, George Floyd, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright, Remy Fennell, and just last night to our newest ancestor, Ma’Khia Bryant, and so many others.

And we want not one more ancestor caused by white violence.

We can hold the significance of this jury’s decision.

And we can simultaneously hold to abolitionist aspirations of a world beyond violence.

We can feel relief in this conviction.

And we can acknowledge the work it took to bring it forward. This was not a natural evolution or a spontaneous reckoning. This was the cause and effect of persistent, Black-led organizing.

The response to George Floyd’s murder has created shifts and openings that didn’t exist before — in the hearts and souls of people who weren’t open to seeing systemic racism for what it is.

And we continue fighting for a future in which our humanity is upheld every day.