📣 'The common denominator was justice'
Plus, local desserts that are almost too pretty to eat.
By Francesca Dabecco
Welcome to Tuesday, Pittsburgh.
I hope your Monday wasn’t too gloomy with all the rain we’ve been having. Not to make things even more somber, but we have to talk about it: today marks one year since the police murder of George Floyd. This time last year, Pittsburgh joined cities across the country — and all across the world — to march against the police brutality, which led to a nationwide reckoning with the legacy of anti-Black racism in the United States.
The protests all summer long had a ripple effect leading to calls for justice everywhere, including right here in Pittsburgh.
Last week, we saw a response to that call — Rep. Ed Gainey took the primary win and is on his way to becoming the first Black mayor of Pittsburgh. In this 90.5 WESA article, Gainey said that his win was a response to Pittsburghers wanting a more just city for all:
“Last year, when we saw the peaceful protestors in the streets, it was the first time I had seen something like that,” Gainey said. “Some of them had environmental justice signs, others had Black Lives Matter justice signs, others had LGBTQIA justice signs, some had criminal justice, social justice, but the common denominator was justice.”
If you missed it, last week we shared this 8-minute VICE documentary: How George Floyd Protests Changed the Race for Mayor in Pittsburgh.
One year onward, the demand for meaningful police reform and the need to confront this country’s discrimination head-on have not become any less acute; when we look out for our neighbors and conduct ourselves as members of a larger community, we ought to keep these in mind, unfortunate anniversaries or not.
Make it a mission to use today to consider what’s changed — or more troublingly, what hasn’t — in the year since, and how you can be part of the solution.
Scroll on for more news today.
