George Floyd, We Can't Go Back to Normal

Emma Flannery

I’m not going to retell the story of George Floyd’s death. You’ve all seen it. You’ve all heard his cries for help, and you’ve all seen officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck, while three other complacent officers stand by, watching him die.

This is not the first time an unarmed black man has been killed by police, and this is not the first time there has been uproar. However - and call me naive - something about this feels different. America has been angry for a while now, but it feels as if her anger has bubbled up from underneath us and has now risen to the surface. Her fury is palpable, it is visible.

We will not “go back to normal” after this. Going back to normal means going back to a society where actions such as Derek Chauvin’s are excused. I finally feel like we have had enough. This week’s protests have felt different as well. As I watch them, I noticed something. There didn’t seem to be a racial majority in the protests. I saw black and white Americans, as well as a number of non-black people of color represented. There were protests taking place not just in predominantly black areas of each respective city, but in the white areas as well. I saw non-black people of color and white people using their privilege to speak up against a system that had benefited them for so long. That’s when a quote from Benjamin Franklin came to mind: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”

Non-black people of color such as myself and white people could turn their backs on this situation. We’ve done so before. When Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and countless others have died unjustly, we have turned our backs. But this time, we, the unaffected, are angry. We are tired of seeing black people die for no good reason other than at the hands of the racist institutions this country has put in place. 

We are at a boiling point in this country, and we have a choice to make. We can move forward, and work to build a world where everyone, regardless of skin color, feels safe in any aspect of their lives. I finally feel like more of the non-black community understands than before, and they are listening to the black community’s pleas for justice by joining in on the fight.

As soon as we all understand that this is not white people vs. black people, rather racism vs. all people, that world we long to build is feasible.

This is not a race issue: it is a human one. When anyone is hurt or killed by an oppressive system, the entire human race is damaged. When we are able to come together and understand that this fight cannot be fought on racial lines, there will be changes made. We have a chance to make a difference. We have an opportunity to fix this oppressive system built in the times of slavery.

Let’s act on this opportunity.

Let’s vote, sign petitions, donate, and make our voices heard.

Let’s change the world.