Houstonians can’t let Floyd’s death be in vain
This Monday, we call for a solemn assembly and day of mourning in Houston.
Most of us didn’t know George Floyd personally, but we know he died with a police officer’s knee on his neck. We watched Mr. Floyd take his last breath while calling out to his deceased mother as if for protection. Floyd’s inhumane death was shocking for some of us, but not surprising for people of color.
Floyd died amid a callous indifference to justice and as a result of institutionalized violence and discrimination. His death happened in a way that touches the very essence of the value of life and we will not let his passing be in vain. The responses we are witnessing in Houston, across the country, and throughout the world, will not be ignored. Houston’s huge peaceful march and rally this week organized by African American leaders and activists, will not be ignored. We the people of Houston came together from all backgrounds to shout aloud the impacts of systemic wrongdoing and mistreatment and to say no more.
We the people of Houston know how to celebrate together. We are learning how to grow and change together. Now it is time to mourn together. We don’t have to know Floyd personally to value his life. As Floyd’s family and friends gather for his memorial visitation and funeral, let us mourn with them, because his life mattered and he is a part of us.
Let us gather across Houston, and name, acknowledge and share the loss of George Floyd.
Mourning together during quarantine can take many different forms. It may mean calling friends and family, talking or praying. We can join others online or via a televised observance. Many of us will kneel together for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the time that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck. Houstonians with physical limitations for kneeling may choose to stand or sit silently. Some of us will journey to the Fountain of Praise church, where Floyd’s family are hosting a visitation, and others will look to Mayor Sylvester Turner or another community leader for guidance.
At home, connected online, or physically with others, let us name, acknowledge and share the horrific losses of African American women, men and children in the United States. George Floyd. Sandra Bland. Botham Jean. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery — daughters and sons of America, joining too many other black women and men and children over the last 400 years.
And then let us, the people of Houston, turn our mourning into action. We must move forward in an honest critique of the issues that have built systems that threaten and stigmatize black lives, from housing to health care, from education to law enforcement.
In the past, the law enforcement point of view often dictated the narrative and went unchallenged. In Floyd’s case, citizens with cell phone cameras provided a window into what really happened, shocking many Americans into new actions. This is why we so often demand police body cameras to provide a check and balance on official power.
When people we entrust with the responsibility to “protect and serve” use their official authority, their weapons and their bodies to act in violence, we all hurt. Some of us may not feel the pain immediately, but eventually we will be affected as a nation. Our country is stronger united, and our people are better off when we all share the same freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
For days now, many of us have been in the streets, demanding change. Demanding an America where Floyd still enjoys his life, his liberty, and happiness with his family. We should not forget the people who for decades have been taking to the streets and demanding change, only to have their pleas fall on deaf ears, or for promised change to be abandoned.
Let us, the people of
Houston, make sure this change happens.
Let us, the people of Houston, act in unity to demand the changes and accountability we need in our cities, our police departments, our government, and our laws, to dismantle institutional violence and systemic racism.
Most of all, let us, the people of Houston, do this work in our own lives, our habits of thinking, our assumptions, our behaviors, our words and our actions. Let us truly become the change we seek in our world.