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RIGHT AND WRONG Grand Valley Activists Combat Racism in the Wake of George Floyd’s Murder Words by Sharon Sullivan | Photos by Jeff Steele
A
s a biracial child growing up in Denver
HOPEFULLY, THE TIDE IS TURNING
and in western Colorado — where one
The May 25, 2020 killing of an unarmed black
side of her family resided for six generations —
man by a white Minneapolis police officer
Shannon Robinson remembers a group of adults
galvanized the nation — including western
screaming at her while she was riding the school
Colorado. Captured on video, the killing shows
bus in a small Western Slope town. She says she
the police officer, with his hands nonchalantly
quit taking the bus after an unknown woman
in his pockets, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck
came onto the bus and cut off her braids.
for eight minutes and 46 seconds while Floyd
repeatedly cries, “I can’t breathe.”
While with her grandparents, Robinson
remembers strangers coming up to her in the
grocery store and rubbing their hands across
have called for racial justice and an end to
her afro for “good luck.” Mostly, she says she just
the senseless, ongoing killings of Black men
stayed home, because it was safer.
and women. Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain,
Although those incidents happened in the
Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice,
1970s, the 52-year-old Grand Junction resident
Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Philando Castile,
continues to experience racist hostility. A
Rayshard Brooks, and on and on.
motorist threw a full can of pop at her and yelled
Since then, large protests around the world
with her daughter a few years ago. Earlier this
FROM CANDLELIGHT VIGIL TO RAW
summer, while picking up a to-go order at a
Five days after Floyd’s killing, longtime social
downtown restaurant, she overheard a group
justice activists Jacob Richards and Laurel
of men at a nearby table call her a derogatory
Carpenter called for a May 30 candlelight vigil
name, questioning what she was doing there.
on the steps of the Wayne N. Aspinall Federal
the n-word while she was crossing the street
SPOKE+BLOSSOM
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