@TunettePowell I’m more cynical than I’ve ever been before. It must be the intersection of being Black, a Black woman, a Black mother, a Black wife, and a Black educator. And I know racism is not new. I should be used to the pain, to the trauma, but the truth is I’m not. Every day is a new hurt. A new pain. A new struggle.
I was birthed during the pandemic that we now know of as the War on Drugs era. Crack cocaine was strategically placed in the Black community that I grew up in, and when my father fell victim to drug addiction, he was stripped from our home. Here we are today, still ravaged by that pandemic while also navigating a new one. Amid this new health pandemic, we, Black Americans, have still been hit hardest. And even then, us dying from COVID wasn’t enough. Police, doing what police were designed to do, have still managed to kill us.
As the Derek Chauvin verdict was read, I took a deep breath and still felt heavy. I took another and felt even heavier. Why didn’t this moment bring me joy? Why didn’t it feel like justice? George Floyd being murdered by a police officer wasn’t just about police brutality. It was about American brutality. It was about anti-blackness at its core because even as we all witnessed George Floyd’s murder, the defense for the ex-cop turned murderer was drug addiction. According to reports, George Floyd was under the influence of drugs. The irony.
The defense wanted us to believe that drugs are what killed George Floyd. The prosecution wanted us to believe that the ex-cop killed George Floyd. As I’ve given myself time to process, I now believe that America killed George Floyd. America is killing us. That was always the goal - whether it be the slow death of drugs or unclean water or bullets in our chests or knees on our necks.
The same day Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts, a young Black girl, a little older than my 11-year-old son, called the police for help. She was in foster care. She was in fear of her life and was using a knife as her only source of protection until officers arrived. Shortly after her call, she was gunned down by the same police who were called in to help.
The irony.
Bio
Director of Equity, Inclusion and Community at Mirman School She s the Race Scholar, Director of the UCLA Parent Empowerment Project Tunette Powell is a powerful storyteller and educator who believes truth is a form of activism and an agent for change. As an established author and lecturer, Powell has published two nonfiction books and has spoken to groups around the country on topics including the school-to-prison pipeline, parent engagement and institution-induced collective trauma. In addition, she was a 2013 TEDx speaker and has appeared on Oprah’s Lifeclass, NPR, CNN and MSNBC. Powell earned her PhD in Education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her dissertation, The Scars of School Suspension: Narratives as Testimonies of Collective Trauma, examined the wounds dealt to Black parents of children who have been suspended in early childhood education. She also serves as the director of the UCLA Parent Empowerment Project – a project focused on developing, nurturing and sustaining parent engagement and parent leadership in schools, especially at schools serving Black and Brown families
I was birthed during the pandemic that we now know of as the War on Drugs era. Crack cocaine was strategically placed in the Black community that I grew up in, and when my father fell victim to drug addiction, he was stripped from our home. Here we are today, still ravaged by that pandemic while also navigating a new one. Amid this new health pandemic, we, Black Americans, have still been hit hardest. And even then, us dying from COVID wasn’t enough. Police, doing what police were designed to do, have still managed to kill us.
As the Derek Chauvin verdict was read, I took a deep breath and still felt heavy. I took another and felt even heavier. Why didn’t this moment bring me joy? Why didn’t it feel like justice? George Floyd being murdered by a police officer wasn’t just about police brutality. It was about American brutality. It was about anti-blackness at its core because even as we all witnessed George Floyd’s murder, the defense for the ex-cop turned murderer was drug addiction. According to reports, George Floyd was under the influence of drugs. The irony.
The defense wanted us to believe that drugs are what killed George Floyd. The prosecution wanted us to believe that the ex-cop killed George Floyd. As I’ve given myself time to process, I now believe that America killed George Floyd. America is killing us. That was always the goal - whether it be the slow death of drugs or unclean water or bullets in our chests or knees on our necks.
The same day Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts, a young Black girl, a little older than my 11-year-old son, called the police for help. She was in foster care. She was in fear of her life and was using a knife as her only source of protection until officers arrived. Shortly after her call, she was gunned down by the same police who were called in to help.
The irony.
Bio
Director of Equity, Inclusion and Community at Mirman School She s the Race Scholar, Director of the UCLA Parent Empowerment Project Tunette Powell is a powerful storyteller and educator who believes truth is a form of activism and an agent for change. As an established author and lecturer, Powell has published two nonfiction books and has spoken to groups around the country on topics including the school-to-prison pipeline, parent engagement and institution-induced collective trauma. In addition, she was a 2013 TEDx speaker and has appeared on Oprah’s Lifeclass, NPR, CNN and MSNBC. Powell earned her PhD in Education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her dissertation, The Scars of School Suspension: Narratives as Testimonies of Collective Trauma, examined the wounds dealt to Black parents of children who have been suspended in early childhood education. She also serves as the director of the UCLA Parent Empowerment Project – a project focused on developing, nurturing and sustaining parent engagement and parent leadership in schools, especially at schools serving Black and Brown families