This week, a Minneapolis jury reached a verdict of guilty on all counts in the murder of George Floyd—a father, son, brother, and human being. This verdict was momentous for a number of reasons. As the murder was captured on video for all the world to see, it seized our attention, revealing in particular brutality an all-too-common phenomenon in our world today: Black men dying at the hands of law enforcement. Another generation of parents of Black children is raising their children with fear in their hearts towards what could happen to them in an encounter with police. This is not to castigate all police officers, but simply to recognize that the pattern of violence against Black people is widespread enough to invoke justifiable fear in the parents of Black children.
Law enforcement is not the only space in our country where a legacy of racism manifests. In the provision of health care, Black Americans are nearly twice as unlikely to have health insurance as white Americans and nearly twice as likely to die as a result of COVID-19, for example. In housing, Black Americans are significantly less likely to own a home, even when accounting for factors like income and education and nine times more likely to report housing discrimination than white Americans. Residents of Black neighborhoods wait 29% longer to vote than residents of white neighborhoods. The list goes on. It would be hard for us to imagine the murder of George Floyd taking place in the same way if he had been white.
The optimistic perspective is that things are changing: that we haven’t seen a mass civil movement like this since the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s; that cultural representation through Hollywood, TV, and music is demonstrating recognition of the need to enter a new chapter; that corporations are joining to the movement to place pressure on state governments to reverse discriminatory policies. A more hardened perspective could ask whether we would have seen a guilty verdict in the murder of George Floyd had 17-year-old Darnella Frazier not captured the events on video. Or whether, given that many law enforcement, voting, and other policy determinations take place on a locality-by-locality basis, it won’t take a long time for change to occur.
As Jews and fellow community members, we recognize the inextricable nature of all humanity. We are all connected. We are all created in the image of God, and all of our lives our precious and holy. As a people whose foundational story is one of moving from oppression to freedom, we know how imperative it is to help effect that journey for all. I hope you’ll continue to join us as a synagogue community, through our racial justice conversations led by Micah Hart, through our work with POWER led by Micah and Steve Greenspan, through our Food Insecurity Initiative led by Bob Kauffman and Laurie Krivo, and through our work with Vare-Washington Elementary led by Diane Harrison, Phyllis Denbo, and others. Justice, Justice we shall pursue.
