The George Floyd verdict

Dear Colleagues and Students,

Yesterday in Minnesota, a jury of his peers convicted a police officer for murdering a defenseless man. This horrific crime occurred in public, while bystanders, and eventually a nation, watched. Many of the bystanders pleaded for the act to stop. The police officer did not stop, and he brutally killed George Floyd.

It is a national disgrace that this happened in a society that hopes to embrace democracy, liberty, and justice. The racial identity of the individuals in this event matters. George Floyd’s and the officer’s races matter, because of a long, sad truth: a person’s race matters in American society. It should not. But it does. It mattered at our country’s founding. And it matters today, in indisputable racial disparities in Americans’ education, health, wealth, and, sadly, death. These disparities are a product of centuries of systems treating non-whites as lesser. But this history will not, and cannot, define our future. We, as a College, can be part of a different future.

As a former prosecutor, I see yesterday’s verdict as clearly stating that—today—a person of authority will be held accountable for abusing the sacred trust between a government and the people it serves—no matter the races of the people involved. This outcome was not always possible, because our laws once weighed some lives differently than others. As educators and students, we can acknowledge that our history includes laws and rules that made white lives matter more than others. With this understanding of our shared history, we can work together as people of all races to move to a place where we no longer have public debates about which lives matter. We can do our part by building a College that embraces Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We can help improve our system of Justice, by teaching tomorrow’s leaders about that system. Yesterday’s verdict shows that Justice in America, despite its sometimes ugly history, is changing and improving. Yesterday’s verdict shows that Black Lives Matter.

Russ Kavalhuna
President
president@hfcc.edu