George Floyd and the movement for racial justice four years later

 

Content warning: This email discusses police brutality.

Four years ago today, George Floyd’s murder, captured on camera and broadcast around the world, sparked a movement for Black lives and racial justice. He wasn't a martyr and his life wasn't meant to be a sacrifice — he was a man with a family. He deserved to grow old.

That summer, we organized and mobilized, turning our pain into calls for systemic change: for an end to police brutality, racial profiling, and years of injustice that have claimed Black and Brown lives for far too long. Community activists have been sounding the alarm about police violence for decades, but this moment ignited moral outrage for millions.

In the richest country in the history of the world, survival should be the floor, not the ceiling. But our communities are consistently required to organize and mobilize to demand the most basic of freedoms. Health care. Housing. Education. Food. Clean water. Clean air. Bodily autonomy. The right to live to see another day.

James Baldwin reminds us that not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. What matters most to me is meaningful policy change and budget change. It’s time to put our money where our mouth is and invest in resources that provide the restorative, trauma-informed, community-based solutions people are demanding.

Since George Floyd’s death, I’ve reintroduced the Ending Qualified Immunity Act to eliminate the unjust and court-invented doctrine that allows law enforcement to brutalize and murder Black folks like George Floyd with impunity. I have supported the People's Response Act which takes an inclusive, holistic, and public health approach to public safety. And my resolution, the People’s Justice Guarantee, lays out a bold, new vision for justice in the American criminal legal system.

No single bill can undo centuries of injustice, but I firmly believe that if we can legislate hurt and harm, we can and we must legislate equity, healing and justice.

There are some who want to ban discussions on racism and rewrite history, who turn a blind eye to police brutality, who want to defund public programs that would end the cycle of violence in order to maintain the unjust status quo of white supremacy. But the activists and advocates fighting for justice won’t be silenced. They fight in honor of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Philando Castille, Tamir Rice, Tyre Nichols, and so many others who should be with us today.

We must show up in solidarity when injustices take place, demanding accountability and policy to right wrongs. But when the dust settles, the headlines fade, and the media narrative moves on, we need to continue doing the work day in and day out to dismantle systems of oppression. This is a movement, not a moment, and we carry forward the struggle for our collective liberation.

We'll never have true justice for George Floyd and his family. True justice would be George Floyd alive today, at home with his fiancée, children, and siblings. As we remember him today, may we also remember that another world is possible. We can achieve it through sustainable movement-building and transformative legislation.

Yours in service,

Ayanna

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