Ahmaud Arbery: When Justice Is Bittersweet

I wish that I could celebrate justice for Ahmaud Arbery. Twenty-one months after he was brutally murdered for the perceived crime of “jogging while black,” there would be this big sense of relief. But something in my spirit cannot rest. Despite being content knowing the three men responsible are caged like the wild animals that they are, a part of me is discontent knowing the road it took to reach here, and the road that awaits long after this verdict and case have been forgotten.

It took 79 days, video footage, and three prosecutors to even garner an arrest of the three men responsible. Imagine that you murder someone, and for 2.5 months you go on with life, like not only have you not murdered someone, but you have the privilege and freedom of law enforcement.

While Ahmaud’s parents are having to do the unthinkable task for burying him, because he should have been burying them, not the other way around. Instead of going through the traditional five stages of grief, they had to postpone that and put on their activists hats and fight for justice for their son, because local law enforcement believed the lies of the murderers, who had everything to lose, and not their innocent son who had everything to gain by being allowed to continue his 26 year old life.

Or I cannot celebrate because when the jury was selected, there were eleven white people, and…