OP-ED:Five Years After George Floyd’s Murder, The System That Killed Him Is Stronger Than Ever – Essence

Today, May 25th, marks five years since the police murdered our neighbor, George Floyd. In the wake of his murder, people across the country rose up, recognizing that what happened was not an isolated incident, but part of a system designed to target people of color towards the same oppressive end. Collectively, everyone demanded justice for communities of color and confronted the wide arm of the American police state firsthand at protests, rallies and actions.

Five years later, fascism is looming ever larger, and it’s time for our communities to rise and resist again. 

Trump has embarked on a nationwide agenda to expand the police state, with dire consequences for our communities. While one person is profiled and pulled over by the police for driving while Black, another is kidnapped by ICE and ripped away from their family. While the FBI surveils indigenous communities, college students face retaliation by Congress and the Department of Homeland Security for protesting war and genocide. 

These are not separate agencies, but multiple arms using different tools to achieve the same outcome. Their attacks may look different on the surface, but they are all rooted in the same textbook fascist strategy designed to fuel the American police state and to hamstring our communities’ fight against white supremacy. 

And the strategy doesn’t just start with the crackdown. It begins with sowing seeds of destabilization. Trump and Republican plans to cut Medicaid by $880 billion and defund SNAP by $220 million are not just budget decisions; they are deliberate acts of harm to our communities. 

For context, about 230,000 Minnesotans are enrolled in Medicaid, and over 440,000 people are enrolled in SNAP benefits. Stripping thousands of people of life-saving resources at a time when costs are surging and families are suffering leads to instability and insecurity in our communities.

This is all intentional: Trump and Congress are pushing our communities into poverty and instability in order to unleash the police state on them. Poverty is a pretext for surveillance, over-policing and incarceration. And under Trump, the American police state is especially emboldened and empowered to run rampant over our rights and our lives.

It is a system-wide issue, the same system that killed George Floyd and that we mobilized against in 2020, and it is only growing in reach and in impunity under Trump 2.0. Their mandate is the same: Protect white supremacy. Protect the image of security for the wealthy. Criminalize, target, and incarcerate all threats to this privileged class — Black, Latine, poor, Indigenous, Asian, activist, worker and more. 

Across race, ethnicity, and nationality, we are all targets of state oppression and violence. We cannot underestimate how far the Trump administration is willing to go to uproot our communities. This fight touches all of our lives. In the face of this redoubled oppression, we have to redouble our resistance.

At this moment, it is critical we stand with each other. Historically — from the Black Lives Matter movement to the Rainbow Coalition — we know that when people band together, we can fight back against fascism. This fight will not be won by any one person, one action or one organization alone — it will take all of us, rooted in community and connected across struggles. All around the country, local groups are organizing, resisting and building real alternatives to the systems that harm us. You can join us.

Whether in the fight for basic social services from Medicaid to SNAP to the fight against police violence and the criminal legal system, the time for solidarity is now.

Rod Adams is the founder and executive director of New Justice Project MN. This organization focuses on building power for Black Minnesotans through leadership development, political education, and access to equitable jobs and housing. Rod is committed to building economic power for Black and brown communities.