So what will be the lasting historical legacy of Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd?
We don’t for sure know given that within our hour of the conviction a sixteen year old black girl in Ohio called the police reporting a public disturbance and was shot to death in her own front yard by the police.
Not even a single day passed without another black person in America being killed by the police.
I just hope and pray our country can at some point come to terms with systemic racism.
That we treat people of color with at least the same humanity and compassion in which we treat our dogs.
Can anyone envision Derek Chauvin choking a dog to death on a street in broad daylight and no one intervening?
As Will Smith the actor said, “Nothing has really changed. He was just caught on film this time.”
I don’t really know that the government can legislate decency and empathy. We did this in the 60’s when LBJ passed the civil rights legislation and in hindsight all that has done was turn the Solid South from blue to red to this day still minus Georgia in this past election.
Barack Obama won the Whie House twice and if anything it seems to have fueled even more hate from certain white sectors of America.
What made Donald Trump unique from the other GOP candidates in the 2016 primaries? The race card. He played the birther race card and was the first U.S Senator to step on a stage endorsing Trump was Jeff Sessions from Alabama. You think that was a chance accident?
The insurrection of the White House was fueled by people like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Mo Brooks. This was white domestic terrorists in essence ready to hang white Mike Pence because he wouldn’t go along with their plans to overthrow the government.
So I don’t really look at yesterday as an inflection or permanent turning point, but maybe a baby step of sorts that if you catch a white policeman executing a black person on the the streets of America and you have it on film you might haave a chance of winning in court if the jurisdicction is in a blue state.
I hope I’m wrong.