Constant Oppression and Desensitization

    Recently, I heard about Nancy Pelosi's comment thanking George Floyd for "sacrificing your life for justice," and the controversy this comment stirred up. I thought about it, and I feel like a comment like that could only have been made in this exact scenario. To say "thank you [victims of school shootings] for sacrificing your lives" after a school shooter is apprehended, or saying something similar to rape victims after a rapist is apprehended, this to me feels unthinkable. What kind of person thanks someone for getting murdered, period, but also getting murdered and falling victim to a problem that has been going on since the founding of the country. George Floyd didn't sacrifice his life for anything. First of all, and this should have been obvious, especially to an elected official representing the people, but his death wasn't a sacrifice, because sacrifice denotes choice. Murder victims like George Floyd were not given a choice. And as much as I'm sorry to say it, there is no "for the greater good" or "justice" in this scenario. It was one cop. One cop out of how many? I'd say thousands but that honestly feels like a lowball, considering every day a person of color is murdered. Every time I scroll through instagram I see another picture of a dead child. Sometimes multiple killings a day. I can't begin to imagine how many more aren't documented. I remember seeing a story talking about a murder right outside of the courthouse Chauvin was being tried in. People who think this verdict sent a message are delusional. Now, I know what it meant to people. My mother came into my room on the day of and told me about how she had to take a break from her work and just cried. I don't underestimate the power of what just happened. But when the killings don't stop, and the cops who perpetrate these crimes continue to walk free, to me it feels like nothing's changed. Now I pray that this is a start to something bigger, but it's hard to imagine it is. What the Chauvin verdict felt like was the system giving our starving community a morsel of rotten food and acting like it was a banquet. The fact that George Floyd was murdered almost a year ago, and his murderer walked free until last week is outrageous, and the fact that the bar is so abysmally low that this event was cause for celebration is extremely disheartening.