A Bloody, Historic Day: Ma’Khia Bryant and Derek Chauvin | TISOT Ep. 8

Episode Summary:

On April 20th, almost a year after he murdered George Floyd, Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts. 30 minutes before the verdict was handed down, 16 year old Ma’Khia Bryant was fatally shot by a police officer. In this TIS Off-Topic episode, the sisters process the hollow triumph of the Chauvin verdict juxtaposed with the murder of Ma’Khia, and discuss a way forward from here.

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5 Big Takeaways:

1. On protecting and serving: “Who is being “protected and served”? Because it isn’t Black people. It seems as if in the eyes of the law, Black people are still ⅗ of a person.”
2. On justice: “With the Chauvin verdict, a measure of justice was achieved, but real justice would be if George Floyd had not been murdered in the first place.”
3. On counter-programming: “Stop sharing that body cam footage. Share Ma’khia’s TikToks instead. Be intentional about sharing positive messaging about her.”
4. On systemic bias: “We didn’t know how the trial was going to turn out, and we should have. There was incontrovertible video evidence. The fact that we even had to wonder speaks to how deeply flawed the system is, and how deeply biased it can be against the Black people who are being murdered by the police.”
5. On bad apples: “The full saying is actually: ‘One bad apple spoils the entire barrel.’ The whole system needs to be defunded and dismantled.”

10 Key Quotes: 

1. “It should not be historic that justice was achieved.”
2. “Yet another family and community have been bludgeoned by the blunt force trauma of racist policing.”
3. “There are (still) too many Black people and Black children dying at the hands of the police.”
4. “All Black people who live or have lived in white-majority spaces can empathize with that feeling of unwelcome visibility, targeting, and minoritization.”
5. “Carrying a knife is not a character flaw.”
6. “The police are not supposed to be executioners.”
7. “Ma’Khia is a teenage girl who was going through some trauma, asked for help, and got killed. She should have been treated like a human being. It’s the least that she deserved.””
8. “Society is socialized to perceive Black girls as adult, hypersexualized, aggressive, and violent.”
9. “The dehumanization of Black people is at the root of a lot of the police violence.”
10. “Ma’Khia had called the police for help, and they ended up killing her. That’s the tragic irony.”

By The Numbers:

• 1:11 – The sisters discuss how they’re both feeling after hearing the Chauvin verdict.
• 10:18 – Overview of the Ma’khia Bryant murder at the hands of police.
• 36:23 – What now?

Resources:

• Grim List of Deaths at Police Hands Grows Even After Verdict
• The foster care system and others failed Ma’Khia Bryant — and Black kids like her, by Dr. Stacey Patton
• Since testimony in Derek Chauvin’s trial began on March 29, more than three people a day have died at the hands of law enforcement.
• Police shootings database 2015-2021 – Washington Post
• Throughout Trial Over George Floyd’s Death, Killings by Police Mount
• Where The Chauvin Verdict Fits In The Recent History Of High-Profile Police Killings
• Police shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant stokes calls for federal probe in Columbus
• Tired of the Hashtags of Death, by Sharon Hurley Hall
• 985 people have been shot and killed by police in the past year
• Number of people shot to death by the police in the United States from 2017 to 2021, by race
• There were only 18 days in 2020 that the police didn’t kill somebody – UPDATED
• BlackLivesMatter.com