George Floyd's Legacy Is Bigger Than a Defaced Statue or a Posthumous Pardon

By CNN/StyleMagazine.com Newswire

Opinion by Peniel E. Joseph

The recent defacement of a bronze bust of George Floyd in New York City offers important clues about our national journey toward racial justice and repair.

Volunteers quickly sprang into action to help clean up the Floyd bust, which is part of an art installation designed to confront social injustice. Perhaps one of the most unsung aspects of Mr. Floyd's murder has been its galvanic effect on how Americans approach the relationship between built environments and our own history.

Last year's protests prompted tough questions about the relationship between public art and White supremacy, focusing renewed scrutiny on everything from how institutional racism gets to shape our public space to the presence of monuments erected at public expense to praise the tragic legacy of Confederate military heroes.

Its defacement, while it summons echoes for many of attempts to mar memorials to figures such as Emmett Till, ought not to be the only thing we take to heart about this bust of George Floyd. The very act of raising a monument to Floyd is an act of healing, a public elevation of the legacy of an ordinary Black man whose public execution helped lead to a watershed moment of global awareness around racial injustice. So too is news that the Texas State Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously voted to recommend a pardon for Floyd's 2004 drug conviction in Houston.

How America and Americans choose to honor or disgrace Mr. Floyd's memory has become a Rorschach test. One view offers us a path away from the politics of racial division, resentment and denial that helped lead us to this moment. An America that recognizes the humanity within Mr. Floyd's life and legacy is one that possesses a quality of mercy so often denied to victims of police, state, and structural violence. The opposing view doubles down on the politics that poise the nation on the brink of permanent divisions along racial lines that fail to recognize Black humanity even in the lives of children public servants are sworn to protect.

For those interested in honoring Floyd's legacy, it is imperative to remember that his fatal encounter with former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was not the first time he faced misconduct at the hands of law enforcement. Floyd's recommended pardon represents, in more granular detail, additional positive effects of the spotlight being cast on policing in America. The former Houston police officer who arrested Floyd, Gerald Goines, was later indicted on murder charges prompting the district attorney to seek post-conviction relief for certain cases, including that of Mr. Floyd. Goines' attorney told CNN her client pleaded not guilty to all charges.

It is now up to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to make this pardon official.

Each of these developments illustrates how George Floyd's posthumous legacy continues to grip America's national imagination, as well as long-standing institutions with complex histories of racial discrimination. The New York City Fire Department, for instance, recently suspended nine members of the FDNY for alleged racist messages mocking Floyd's death. An FDNY spokesman described the punishments to The New York Times as the most severe discipline in the department's history.