Pelosi is out of pocket but she's also not the only white person who will do this today so this is just a reminder that murder victims don't "sacrifice" themselves. George Floyd did not choose what happened to him. He wanted to be alive. He begged for it. He was not a martyr.

That anything constructive came out of his death - like global protests bringing communities together to shine a public light on white supremacy in policing, or mainstreaming abolition discourse - does not mean we can retcon him into a Christ figure who gave his life for America.

Fred Hampton wanted to play for the Yankees. Dr. King was a pastor. George Floyd had a daughter he wanted to go home to. The language of sanctification can be so dehumanizing that we risk losing our sense of horror at the death of a human being who did not want to die.

Black men and women who die in the struggle for civil rights always had something else they would rather have done with their lives than become a symbol

they're people

these were all people

they had hopes and dreams and families and a future they deserved to get to see

So please, white folks, be INCREDIBLY mindful of the language you use today, because George Floyd didn't sacrifice himself for a better America, and implying that he did encourages complacency, because "at least some good came out of all this."

It was still a murder.