By Ternae Jordan, Charles Grant & Thomas Bester
Tennessee Baptist Mission Board
It’s a familiar story. Black man is taken into custody by a police officer and is murdered. Arrests follow, press conference held, speeches made, people march, people riot, politicians posture, reform is promised.
Nothing changes.
The pages of this tired script are frayed and stained with more African American blood. The sequels never end. But surely – surely – this time is different. This time America watched as George Floyd had his face ground into the asphalt for nearly 10 minutes as an officer’s knee crushed his neck until he asphyxiated.
It was brutal. It was inhumane. Another piece of the Black American soul died with George Floyd. Another piece of America’s soul died in the streets of Minneapolis, snuffed out by the centuries-old racial prejudice that festers like rancid gangrene eating away at our society. We can’t keep doing this to ourselves, but we can’t seem to stop. [Read more…]