This essay is part of a Youth Voice series on the one-year mark of the police killing of George Floyd. An introduction to this series can be viewed here.
I am from North Minneapolis, born and raised, and I would first like to speak on my feelings regarding the Derek Chauvin trial and guilty verdict for the murder last year of George Floyd.
My community, as far as north and south Minneapolis, actually connected and was brought together, along with the rest of the world, awaiting justice in its most orderly conduct. The trial and verdict will go down in history as a memorable moment, for us as a state and for us as a culture. Me being 20 years of age and a Black youth, I have definitely seen a huge impact on my community. I think seeing justice be served to the degree that it was set the tone for addressing racism in Minnesota — one of the states that doesn’t have as many African Americans in their population. I think the approximately 363,000 African Americans that do live here can finally have some peace knowing the world isn’t as corrupt as has been displayed in recent times. R.I.P. George Floyd and Daunte Wright.
Foster care is already an issue that is often overlooked, and the disregard is doubled if you add being a minority to that matter. I think of fosters everywhere when I consider how young men with parental issues have to bear witness to the killings of George Floyd and Daunte Wright. I think we all can agree that this experience or situation impacts community members, especially foster youth. According to a StarTribune article published April 23, “Minnesota’s police licensing board on Thursday agreed to pursue new rules for law enforcement responses to protests and a ban on officers affiliating with white supremacist groups.”
The fact that this had to happen speaks a lot as to where we were headed if the trial did not serve this measure of justice. I personally feel like this verdict helps fosters and youth of all races keep hope for a sense of equality in a country where some of us didn’t already have that freedom initially. Freedom is bigger than the end of slavery. The nation’s systemic racism and inequity has spoken for us too long, and this reckoning might be the change we need to advance into a more just world tomorrow.