Under the baobab: Will the Derek Chauvin trial mark a cultural transformation, or more of the same?

Events can have a profound effect. These can be personal (the death of a parent, the birth of a child) or public (the election of a U.S. President, the pandemic). The Derek Chauvin trial is such an event. A white police officer is accused of murdering George Floyd, a Black man, as he was held in custody.

Millions witnessed Floyd begging to be allowed to breathe as Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck, while he was handcuffed and restrained. We heard him cry for his mother. We saw the gathered bystanders pleading for Floyd’s life.

All of this was prompted by Floyd’s arrest over a potentially counterfeit $20 bill. In Minnesota this is petty larceny, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum 90 days in jail or a $1,000 fine. It becomes a felony when $500 is involved. Knowingly passing counterfeit money is a state and federal offense. Christopher Martin, the Cup Foods clerk who accepted the bill for a pack of cigarettes, doubted whether Floyd even knew it was counterfeit.

It is not the first time we have experienced a crisis like this where white police officers have killed Black people, especially men. My dad as a teenager saw his best friend lynched over a mistake in the ‘30s. I was one of the thousands of people who processed by Emmett Till’s coffin in 1955. In 1963 we mourned Medgar Evers whose murderer was not prosecuted for decades. In 1964 we watched as James Chaney was laid to rest, not even allowed to be buried with his two white Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee brothers, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. Integration even in death was illegal in the state of Mississippi.

Amadou Diallo, Eric Garner, Michael Brown.

Say their names.

It seems endless. Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Antwon Rose, Rayshard Brooks, Stephon Clark. On March 20, 2019 we mourned the death of Osaze Osagie when he was killed by State College police.

If Derek Chauvin is actually convicted of the crime it will be a cultural transformation. Many of us understand this. We appreciate how this could contribute to the dismantling of white supremacy in our society. But, is there enough evidence to convince the jury? It only takes one stubborn person with “reasonable doubt” to “hang” the jury, which could restart the whole process.

We all saw the tape, but what did we see? I saw a man, not unlike me being strangled to death, not unlike a public lynching. Other people apparently saw an enraged, drug driven brute lawful being subdued by police.

I was moved by the humanity exhibited by the other white people involved, the EMTs who tried desperately to save Mr. Floyd, Genevieve Hansen, the experienced firefighter, who tried unsuccessfully to intervene. They all served to protect life. The police, many of whom were Chauvin’s superiors, broke blue line protocol to testify that Chauvin’s behavior was wrong. Chauvin was not following standard police procedure.

I was inspired by the bystanders, Black and white, who attempted to intervene on behalf of George Floyd.

I was especially moved by Mr. Charles McMillian, 61 years old, an elder like myself who has seen much and suffered much. He watched helplessly, witnessing a man lose his life to careless, malicious and racial violence. Like 9/11, the Kennedy assassinations, the murders of Malcolm and Martin, Pearl Harbor, Tulsa, Oklahoma, (Say the names). This private tragedy became public. I cried with Mr. McMillian while he testified on the stand. He didn’t know whether this was going to be seen as just another death of a Black man or the true dawning of a rebirth of freedom for all people. Nor do we.

Sisters and brothers, the time is now, the cause is just. Who are we to turn our backs on justice?