One Black Life Matters
Reflection by Edith Guffey
Yesterday a jury in Minnesota said clearly that One Black Life Matters.
One message, one verdict, that means so much to so many.
It tells us something, doesn’t it?
I am so relieved and so grateful that justice was done.
And yet, while I am grateful, should I HAVE to be?
I am kicking myself for even saying that, today.
Shouldn’t I just be grateful, take the win, sit down and shut up?
Maybe.
But that’s ignoring how deep the wounds of racism run.
just because one cut didn’t kill us we can’t forget the cancer that is ravaging our body.
This is one case, one jury.
Yes, I am grateful.
I am breathing easier, feeling a little more hopeful.
But the dis-ease is still there…
and the journey continues.
I find my words lacking to fit this moment. Cole Arthur Riley, the writer of Black Liturgies, a space where Black words “live in dignity, lament, rage, and hope,” expresses it more clearly:
