I am writing this on June 4, 2020. Today is a day to remember. Respects were paid and goodbyes were said at the memorial services for George Floyd not only in his own city, but all around the world. No matter your age or how hectic your life may be during these rather unfortunate and crucial times, everyone knows about or has been affected by the murder of George Floyd, the victim of yet another senseless and unjust murder.
Regardless of your race, religion or political affiliation, you cannot avoid the movement for change that is necessary now more than ever. George Floyd is just one of countless victims in our country’s unjust history whose right to live as an American has been taken away from them.
Ask yourself, do you want your children or your children’s children to have to deal with the racial discrimination that plagues the world? What are you going to do to help change the narrative?
I have a suggestion: be the change you wish to see through your actions.
Always remember that there is strength in numbers. These past days are proof of that. The world was united around a good cause. Now tell me, what cause will you stand for?
As a father, a son, a brother and an uncle, my heart is heavy. My eyes filled with tears as I sat in my prison cell and watched what had been taking place out in the world on my little TV.
It makes me feel even more confined inside this prison because I can’t do anything to help. I can’t be a solution to the problem.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Here are our ground rules:
- You must credit Prison Journalism Project. In the byline, we prefer “[Author Name], Prison Journalism Project.” At the top of the text of your story, please include a line that says: “This story was originally published by Prison Journalism Project” and include a link to the article.
- No republishing of photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission. Please contact inquiries@prisonjournalismproject.org.
- No editing the content, including the headline, except to reflect changes in time, location and editorial style. For example, changing, “today” to “last week,” or San Quentin to San Quentin, California. You can also make minor revisions for style or headline size, and you can trim stories for space. You must also retain all original hyperlinks, including links to the Prison Journalism Project newsletters.
- No translation of our stories into another language without specific permission. Please contact inquiries@prisonjournalismproject.org.
- No selling ads against our stories, but you can publish it on a page with ads that you’ve already sold.
- No reselling or syndicating our stories, including on platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. You also can’t republish our work automatically or all at once. Please select them individually.
- No scraping our website or using our stories to populate websites designed to improve search rankings or gain revenue from network-based advertisements.
- Any site our stories appear on must have a prominent and effective way to contact you.
- If we send you a request to remove our story, you must do so immediately.
- If you share republished stories on social media, please tag Prison Journalism Project. We have official accounts on Twitter (@prisonjourn), Facebook (@prisonjournalism), Instagram (@prisonjournalism) and Linked In.
- Let us know when you share the story. Send us a note, so we can keep track.
Reflection on George Floyd From a Year Ago
