Americans are Owed an Apology
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Photo by Fibonacci Blue
The verdict is in. Guilty on all three counts.
But what do we hear? Speaker Nancy Pelosi thanked George Floyd because he “sacrificed” his life “for justice,” as if he were Jesus Christ laying down his life for the salvation of the world.
MSNBC’s Jason Johnson said, “I’m not happy. I’m not pleased. I don’t have any sense of satisfaction. I don’t think the system is working.” He believes, “This is the justice system trying to say, ‘hey, this is one bad apple.’” Johnson believed Derek Chauvin was convicted because it’s “a cultural make-up call.”
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, “This is not justice.” She explained with a word salad that started from the sad truth Floyd will no longer be with his family to military spending vs healthcare.
It was always clear from the moment we saw Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck (which the defense proved was a misconception), that this homicide was greater than one life being destroyed. Though Chauvin’s former police department and the city were more than happy to shed Chauvin, call his actions reckless, and claim he was never trained that way—regardless of pictures in the training manual—they can’t simply toss him as a bad apple. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said before the verdict was announced, the outcome didn’t matter. Floyd was killed by “the police.”
Colin Kaepernick was deemed vindicated for taking a knee during the national anthem! And NBA player Jonathan Isaac—a black man—was asked if he cared about black lives, because he wouldn’t join in on the propaganda, and would rather point the world toward Jesus.
The original viewing of the video sparked protests, marches, and violent riots filled with looting and arson. If you cared about your local store being ravaged, you were accused of not caring about black lives. There were billions in property damage and at least two dozen lives lost. But you barely heard a peep from Democrats about the violence until CNN’s Don Lemon whined on TV about how their silence was influencing poll numbers.
Why was the nation inflamed so? It’s not because an evil man did an evil thing that we all saw on video. It’s because he was a white cop who killed a black man, and the narrative was race played a role. Posts flooded social media—from average joes to politicians—claiming Floyd would be alive if he were white, ignoring men like Tony Timpa. Instead of America having a conversation on police brutality and being unified in condemning Chauvin’s behavior, the case became symbolic. Chauvin wasn’t a cop who made bad and dangerous decisions; he was racist white America on trial. Floyd was elevated from a criminal, high out of his mind, to a messiah who laid down his life for justice.
But there was never any evidence of race playing a factor. It didn’t play a role in the trial. With that sort of burden, a fair trial may have never been possible. After all, it’s “a cultural make-up call.” More importantly, the outcome wouldn’t have mattered. It’s not a vindication of our justice system. It’s not a lesson on accountability. It’s not a tiny speck of hope that America isn’t a white supremacist nation. We’re already onto our next outrage: an evil white cop shot a black teen who was in the midst of stabbing another black teen. He’s not a hero. He’s not understood as a man who had to make a decision within ten seconds of getting out of his car. The new narrative is he’s a racist and knife fighting among young women is normal.
This is absurd and says far more about parenting than police, but America isn’t in a place to look at individuals and weigh their decisions. We like symbolism that can fit our narrative.
Ami Horowitz traveled to Minneapolis to speak with protestors before Chauvin’s verdict. If things didn’t go their way, they talked about “street justice” and a new civil war. They believed thousands of unarmed black people were killed by police last year. Horowitz revealed the number is 18. In 2019, the number was less. You may say, “One life is too many,” but I don’t buy the same level of hostility and racial division would exist if Americans had anywhere close to an accurate understanding of the facts.
We can blame politicians like Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who has a long career of incitement. We can blame ambulance chasers like Reverend Jesse Jackson, nihilistic essayists like Ta-Nehisi Coates, or history revisionists like Nicole Hannah Jones. We can blame BLM, who only care for black lives lost in the context that enriches them, so their leaders can buy mansions in white neighborhoods, while parents of Breonna Taylor and Michael Brown chastise them for not giving back appropriately. We can lay responsibility at Vice President Kamala Harris’s feet, who elevated obvious hate hoaxes like Jesse Smollett. I’d most definitely blame the media, who pushed lies like “hands up, don’t shoot” and disputed police claims that George Floyd resisted arrest, and we didn’t learn the truth until Daily Mail in the UK leaked bodycam footage.
Whatever led to White Fragility being a bestseller, teachers openly segregating their students, race hoaxes, and the bigotry of low expectations, there are still Americans who have enough common sense and dignity to judge each other off the content of someone’s character, look at individual actions, and honor personal responsibility. If you’re one of those sensible Americans who watched your country burn over a false narrative of black men being executed in the streets by cops, you’re owed an apology.
You’ll never get it. But I thought you should know.
