On George Floyd and Black Lives Matter

On George Floyd and Black Lives Matter

On the third Monday of every year, Many Helping Hands 365 organizes a city-wide community service event in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, his work, and his dream of living in a more socially and racially just society. While we recognize and value the role community service can play in helping heal racial and other social disparities, we believe that the only way we can achieve the world envisioned by Dr. King is if we commit to the fight, not just by lifting up our community, but by evaluating ourselves, our actions, and the ways we think, every single day.

With that being said, we cannot ignore the events that have taken place in the past week. On May 25th, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man in Minneapolis, was murdered by now-former police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck while he was handcuffed and faced-down, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Floyd had been accused of buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. Floyd was by no means the first black person to die from a hate-crime disguised as law enforcement. His tragic death followed that of countless other black and P.O.C. victims, all whom should be alive today.

We’ve created a resources page both in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and protesters and in our pursuit to be the best allies we can be. It includes a mini-resource guide that has been curated from deep and thoughtful lists of resources – our hope is to share the work of others through new networks and to inspire more people to take action.

We must remember that George Floyd is far from the first – and likely not the last – to fall as a victim to the institutionalized and systemic racism that still plagues our communities and our country. As allies, our commitments are not just to the protests of 2020 but to strive to create racial equity and social justice, each and every day.

Please visit our Racial Justice Resources section for more resources on anti-racism and to commit with us to this long-term fight.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.”
DR. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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