Join your neighbors in solidarity at the Piedmont Exedra to mark this moment in time since the George Floyd verdict. Our work is far from over. We will create space for each other in peace, integrity, community, equality, and justice. Please bring your hearts and minds, and your thoughts or feelings to share, if you feel compelled, or anything you would like to leave at the George Floyd installation at the Exedra wall. #sayhisnamegeorgefloyd
Join us for a Solidarity Circle:
Reflections on Where We Are as a Community
After the Murder of George Floyd
This Saturday, 4/24/21, 4PM
Piedmont Park Exedra (Blue Vase, Center of Town)
Accountability, Not Justice
We are thankful that our judicial system found Derek Chauvin guilty for the murder of George Floyd. We also mourn. George Floyd was a father, a son, and a valued friend. Those who loved him will never feel his warmth and brightness again.
George Floyd’s cries for his mother will forever ring in our ears.
This is not closure. This is not redemption. The fight against racial violence and discrimination did not begin with this trial, nor does it end with this trial. Since the trial began on March 29, at least 65 people have died at the hands of law enforcement nationwide, with Black and Latinx people representing more than half of the dead. As of Saturday, the average was more than three killings per day.
So we rage. We rage at the beliefs, the norms, the policies and the systems that led to George Floyd’s death—and to the wrongful deaths of too many Black, Brown and “non-white” members of our community.
We name these beliefs, norms, policies and systems for what they are: bigotry and misogyny, institutionalized through policies and systems of racism, white supremacy and patriarchy. Racial equity can only be achieved through collective efforts to tear down these structures, lift up our BIPOC brothers and sisters, and demand an end to hateful acts of racial violence and discrimination.
The Piedmont Racial Equity Campaign (PREC) was formed in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death to prove that local action matters. Cities across the nation are revising their approaches to housing, policing and education with an eye towards racial equity and justice. Our town’s policies, investments, and words should and can positively impact those who live here and make our community more inclusive and just.
So now we mourn. And we act. And we show up. We do the individual work and work as a community so that our country’s ideals of justice, fairness and equity protect us all. The fight against racial violence and anti-Blackness is far from over.
Email us at piedmontracialequity@gmail.com or visit piedmontracialequity.org for more information on local meetings and events to support racial equity.