Chauvin Ruling Sparks Debate on the Future of Fighting Injustice

| Photo by Lucas Drumond

For much of the past 12 months, Americans have heard the rallying cry, “I can’t breathe.” 

In response to George Floyd’s death at the hands of Derek Chauvin, many used the chant as a plea for justice. The movement involved hundreds of protests, especially in the summer of 2020.

Now, in 2021, the situation has changed. Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder. But is the fight for justice still unfinished?

On April 20th of 2021, a jury charged Derek Chauvin with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. At that point, new debates began to occur, even within The King's College community. 

Some students thought that the court’s ruling was just while others expressed doubt. Some thought that racial justice did not exist within the United States, while others did.

For each issue, The King's College fostered a community where debate was able to thrive.

When it comes to the issues that need debating, Tamia Dunlap tends to err on the side of skepticism. As a Black member of the TKC Republicans student organization, she has a unique perspective on the events surrounding George Floyd and Derek Chauvin. Dunlap does not think that justice was accomplished as a result of the George Floyd trial. She holds concerns about the jury selection, the presence of drugs in Floyd’s bloodstream and even Derek Chauvin’s convictions. 

“Convicting him of manslaughter and murder are literally contradictory charges,” Dunlap said. She thought the trial was decided via mob rule and not true justice.

Other students, however, were convinced that the process surrounding Floyd’s trial carried out justice. Next year, Edwin “Chivo” Perez will be one of the co-presidents of The Table, King’s Black and Latinx student org. Perez was convinced that the Chauvin ruling was the only way in which justice could properly be accomplished. 

“I feel like it was long awaited and it was something that really did have to be accomplished in that form to start the fight against racial injustice,” Perez said.

Within the segment of people who believe that justice within the Chauvin trial exists, a sector believes that more work is necessary to accomplish true justice. While Perez is still doing that extra work to accomplish true justice, Jules Ballaran is working towards racial justice even more explicitly.

Ballaran will be an exec team member for The Bridge next year. Along with a few other members, Ballaran created The Bridge when she saw a lack of space for Asian students to feel safe after the racially motivated mass shooting in Atlanta. Instead of creating an Asian version of The Table, they decided to open The Bridge to all international students. They envision a safe and open environment for all who felt that they did not belong. Ballaran has unique insight into what can make a person feel loved. 

“We won’t have racial justice until everything is fixed, both big and small,” Ballaran said. “We have to stop the microaggressions too.”

Indeed, ending the small things is the entire point of The Bridge.The Bridge will provide a safe place where those microaggressions do not exist, and Ballaran thinks that the organization will do so effectively. If it does so, The Bridge will be a valuable service that did not exist for international students in past years.

“I think that it is incredibly dishonest for people who are going to an expensive school who are learning amazing subject matter from amazing professors in a very non-biased way without facing any discrepancies systematically to claim that they are fighting a racial bogeyman, ” Dunlap said.

Indeed, Dunlap thinks that the conversation about race as it stands is essentially “academic plagiarism.” She had strong words for those who talk about how racial injustice had affected them when she says, “Trying to milk this conflict for as long as they can is part of the issue.”

Yet, it can be hard to completely ignore issues when failing to acknowledge them means failing to acknowledge attacks on people who look like you. 

“All throughout high school, they hated me, just because of the color of my skin, or the fact that I spoke Spanish,” Perez shared on his experience in high school. “Everybody’s unique, no one person’s the same. So what’s the difference between skin color and culture? It’s just one more thing that makes us different. Let’s understand as a whole.”

For people like Perez, who have experienced racism firsthand, trying to ignore conflict and move on can be a tough pill to swallow. Attempting to ignore racism would feel like an attempt to erase part of their personal history. As King’s students attempt to navigate the fight towards racial justice, how should they proceed?

Dunlap is convinced that the right way to proceed is to put more of an emphasis on other issues in the world and less emphasis on race.

Ballaran believes that the best way to fight racial injustice is providing an atmosphere in which students can feel comfortable and open, no matter their skin tone.

Ballaran said, “Everybody’s unique, no one person’s the same. So what’s the difference between skin color and culture? It’s just one more thing that makes us different. Let’s understand as a whole.”