In memoriam of George Floyd and thoughts on justice, four years later.
If you’re like me, May 25th is a day you hold your breath, abstain from Facebook and prepare for the onslaught of posts that serve as a perpetual reminder that there is still so much work to do. It can be frustrating to watch observances like these fade from the dominant discourse and become yearly public bragging points, only to be addressed again 365 days later when the next 24-hour activism opportunity arises.
As a person working in the reproductive health care space–I’m often confronted with the correlation between instances of police brutality and the governmental policing of our bodies in health care options. Today, that link is especially apparent.
As Black people, time and time again it feels like we are only seen when one of us is reduced to martyrdom, as if George Floyd’s life was centered around the moment it was unjustly ended. Or Brittany Watt’s story of motherhood could be reduced to the instance in which her own loss was turned against her by a system sworn to offer “justice.”
Today, as we remember the life of George Floyd, we will celebrate the father, sibling, cousin and community member who colored the lives of so many and who was cruelly taken, recognizing that today is one day of many spent grieving his loss for all who love him.
And we will look forward to the fight ahead for justice. We must recognize that work to rectify police brutality can’t exist in a vacuum– to advocate, we have to holistically approach every corner that racism touches. In the reproductive health care space, we’re seeing these systems of oppression play out in real time as we grapple with an increasingly volatile landscape for reproductive health care in the U.S.
In our own region, Brittany Watts was unjustly arrested for miscarrying due to confusion brought on by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. These instances of state-sanctioned violence against Black people are part of a 400 year old system that disregards their humanity and autonomy and we won’t stand for it. The fight for access is inextricably linked to the larger battle for agency over our own bodies, liberty and freedom to exist free from unjust government policing—in all its forms.
We need to examine how white supremacy of the past and present continues to reverberate in the institutions we are a part of today — including my own place of work, Planned Parenthood. Moving forward means acknowledging that the history of this organization plays no small part in this larger problem; and work together to ensure that we remain committed to addressing and correcting implicit bias within our organization and its history, so we can improve our delivery of health care and education for all people.
Racism is a public health crisis. Public health by definition is built on the principle of saving lives. There has been no greater threat to Black lives than violence being inflicted at the hands of the state — through the blatant violence inflicted by police and through centuries of policy that have systematically oppressed Black people since before the founding of our country, causing maternal mortality crises and unequal access to preventative reproductive health care.
To do justice to the countless lives lost, we can’t let days like today be moments of point-proving or token-grabbing, we need to gather, to listen to Black voices and act.
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