Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Each time I heard the word out of the judge's mouth, I felt a ringing in my ears and a single weight taken off my chest. The murder of an unarmed black man finally saw it's way to having justice. We as a community began to exhale. There's a moment of unified calm and pure black joy. While we revel in the justice that we have cried, sweat and bled for, the world around us didn't quite get the memo that this was our moment.
We celebrated, and tweeted, and cried for George Floyd who, regardless of a guilty verdict, is not here with us, but another police officer just like Derek Chauvin showed us that we can't stop now. At the same time we received the verdict, in Columbus, Ohio a 16 year old girl, named Ma'Khia Bryant, was shot 4 times by a police officer responding to her 911 call. She brandished a knife which the officer decided would cause her untimely demise. Just as the calm started, the rage is summoned almost immediately.
It is tiresome living in a country that so blatantly does not respect black people. One step forward seems to propel us10 steps backward. The victories matter, but it does not stop the constant revolution. The black community is handed peanuts such as a guilty verdict to stop riots and a "Black Lives Matter Plaza" in DC in the very area where police brutalized black people protesting a year earlier.
They are steps in the right direction, but innocent lives are still being lost and that is what needs to stop. It's a fight for justice that should ultimately end in less black lives being sacrificed for sport. Things will not change until legislation is made which is what every member of the Black Lives Matter Movement is screaming at the top of their lungs. While rejoicing now and letting our souls take a much needed break is important, it is also essential that we don't forget that the work has just begun.
We have not forgotten about beautiful people taken too soon such as Breonna Taylor, whose murderers were not only acquitted, but her and her boyfriend were made out to be criminals and deserving of the crime that took place. The unnecessary and devastating murder of Daunte Wright while the Derek Chauvin trial was still taking place is still fresh on everyone's mind.
This trial is over, but there are more that need that guilty verdict and more that we can even stop from happening in the first place. Our black lives matter and it's still no justice, no peace.
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