Accountability Is Not The Same As Justice
Written by Sarah Johnson
Photo by Gabe Pierce on Unsplash
George Floyd’s family lost a son, a brother, and a father, and we grieve for them, as George Floyd should still be alive today. With a guilty verdict of his murderer, we hope that George’s family, friends, and community can begin to find some solace and a path toward healing and peace.
Even with a guilty verdict, we implore our community to remember that “accountability is not the same as justice.” There is no justice until Black people can safely raise their children and thrive in all of our communities. As if we needed a further reminder of this, hardly a moment after the verdict was announced, we learned of the horrific police murder of Ma’Khia Bryant, a child in Columbus, OH. There is no justice without dismantling racist systems through vigilant effort, education, and policy change.
In the summer of 2020, we wrote “Black Lives Matter; Dismantle White Supremacy” which continues to guide our work at Teaching Lab today.
Educators have an immediate role to play as what we do and say in our classrooms can support a young person in crisis or validate a young person’s developing critical consciousness. Resources on how to work with students as we respond to the verdict is scarce, so we must do better as a whole, as a community.
We’re inspired by a post from Carlos Moreno, educator and leader of Big Picture Learning: “I will get no relief until systems and structures have changed — deep and broad and lasting change.” All of us--students, teachers, parents--have a role to play in demanding and fighting for systemic change at every level, with every lever, until as a society, we’ve eliminated the racial predictability and disproportionality of which marginalized communities are negatively impacted by systemic racism.
Thank you to George Floyd’s family, and all the families who demand justice for their loved ones, and to all of the protesters and activists who continue to take to the streets to fight for a dramatically reimagined future.
