Civil Rights for Black Americans Just Had the Best Month Ever
President Biden and the Department of Justice made a statement — but there’s still more work to be done
You’d be hard-pressed to find two weeks of American history more honorable to the civil rights and lives of Black people than the last 14 days. The 2020 murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd didn’t slow the rate of police killing Blacks; more than 200 have lost their lives to “bad apples” since former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin suffocated Floyd last May, according to data from research group Mapping Police Violence. That figure includes the six Black people killed by law enforcement since Chauvin’s second-degree murder and manslaughter conviction on April 20.
These despicable statistics illuminated the answered prayers in President Biden’s televised speech last Wednesday night. The 46th POTUS addressed Congress with a $1.8 trillion plan to upgrade the country with infrastructure and civil rights legislation, placing an emphasis on jobs and education from preschool through college. The highlight, though, was Biden’s acknowledgment of those whose civil rights have been and continue to be violated.
Biden demanded equality for Asian, Black, and transgender people, while calling out the metastasized cancers inside our police departments. Most impressively, Biden forewent the low-hanging fruit available to all politicians behind a podium. He got specific, championing the George Floyd Act while simultaneously vilifying domestic terrorism by racists in and out of uniform. He implored that the United States “root out systemic racism in our criminal justice system and enact police reform in George Floyd’s name.”
While Biden’s words Wednesday night were full of audacity and hope for an inclusive tomorrow, they were ultimately delectable icing atop an unprecedented couple weeks of enacted justice. April has resembled a Christmas holiday for the exhaustive and at times presumably interminable fight for African-American civil rights. Never before had karma kicked crooked cop culture in the pant seam harder than it did last month.
At this present moment, the real MVP for Black America is the Department of Justice. Its recent crackdown on…
