This year’s discussions about anti-racism have been painful, frustrating – and valuable. gal-dem’s editor-in-chief on the story behind this year’s all-black conversations special
Conversations this year have, by necessity, become more intentional than ever. The silence and stillness of the pandemic – which emptied streets, rolled cars into garages, quelled the chatter of local supermarkets – was both soothing and terrifying. No longer would you sit for hours making small talk with your favourite hair braider. No longer would you bump into a friend at the shops. Control over conversations reigned, at a time when the virus was taking over the rest of our lives.
Even George Floyd’s death was prefaced by a conversation of sorts – one in which there was an inherent danger. “Let me see your hands,” Officer Thomas Lane said to the 46-year-old, on approach. “Hey, man. I’m sorry!” was Floyd’s response. And so began his killing. News of his death, as with those of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and Ahmaud Arbery, all killed this year, splintered into the hearts of the global black diaspora and beyond.
