The testimony coming out of the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd has been beyond heartbreaking and beyond enraging. Today, for instance, Floyd’s girlfriend revealed on the stand that his pet name for her was “Mama,” which is what he called out over and over as he died. It’s been this way throughout the testimony of the prosecution’s witnesses. Darnella Frazier, now 18 years-old, was 17 when she took the video that first catalyzed the response to Chauvin’s murder of Floyd, and she said on the stand, “When I look at George Floyd, I look at my dad, I look at my brothers, I look at my cousins, my uncles, because they’re all Black. I have a Black father. I have a Black brother. I have Black friends. I look at how that could have been one of them.” This is not to mention the brave condemnation to the faces of the cops by two black men: Donald Williams, who said to them, “Y’all murderers, dawg, y’all are murderers, dawg,” and 61 year-old Charles McMillan, who told Chauvin after Floyd’s limp body was taken away, “I don’t respect what you did.” Both men broke down crying on the stand over what they witnessed, what they’ve had to live with.
