George Floyd’s uncle reflects on the fight for social justice 5 years after police killing

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• John Yang:

  Good evening. I'm John Yang. It was five years ago today that George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police. Cell phone video of the event captured by a young witness sent shock waves around the world and triggered an American reckoning with racial justice and police use of force. Today, vigils were held in cities across America to mark the day.

  In Minneapolis, at the intersection where Floyd died, crowds placed flowers on his memorial. But despite the protests and the focus on race and racial inequality that followed Floyd's death, a recent Pew Research poll found that 72 percent of Americans surveyed said it did not lead to changes that improved black people's lives.

  Earlier, I spoke with Selwyn Jones, who's George Floyd's uncle. He's co-founder of the Justice 929 Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes civil rights and systemic change.

  Our conversation is part of our ongoing series, Race Matters.

  I imagine this time of year has got to be difficult for you and your family. What are you thinking about? What do you think about when this anniversary comes rolling around?

  Selwyn Jones, Founder, Justice 929: The impact that. It made upon the world? COVID came. COVID had everybody where we needed to have them. That's indoors, looking at television, needing to be informed. And boy, didn't they get informed about a lot of things. They got informed about racism, hatred, police brutality, systemic racism, power control. That all came out that day.

• John Yang:

  You know, afterward, there was a sort of a flurry of changes. Police departments were banning choke holds, they were requiring body cams, requiring training on deescalating confrontations. And yet killings by police officers have gone up since then. What do you make of that?

• Selwyn Jones:

  I think the mental health that goes along with being a police officer has to be stressful. So we need more patience. You know, obviously we need more mental health evaluations, but we literally need something to flip the script because you're right, there's been more people deceased five years after than five years before George. All I know is this is we have to continue this fight, this push.

• John Yang:

  You know, just a few days ago, the Justice Department said that they were going to stop monitoring the Minneapolis Police Department and other departments around the country that have been accused of violating civil rights. What's your reaction to that?

• Selwyn Jones:

  For them to say that they're going to deactivate their average as par for the course we've been fighting systemic racism, police brutality for a plethora of years. And the fight is real. It still continues. And why anyone of power would make that decision, because what good comes from exonerating killers?

• John Yang:

  Talk about the work you've done in the years since then to try to make good, to try to do good. I know you've got a foundation. Tell me about your efforts.

• Selwyn Jones:

  You know, I've got a foundation that we created, Justice 929. And we want to work on homelessness, we want to work on mental health issues, we want to work on domestic violence, police brutality, obviously, social justice, wrongfully convicted.

  There will not be enough change to me until all of the killings, all of the ignorance and all of the unrest is settled. And, wow, that's a whole lot to offer.

• John Yang:

  It is a whole lot to offer and a lot to work on. What do you hope is your nephew's legacy? What do you want his legacy to be?

• Selwyn Jones:

  I don't know if it's a legacy, but what I know is that death that was caused by Derek Chauvin on May 25th of 2020 has changed the dynamics of how the world has been ran since that day. And it's changed policing. So let's hopefully we can keep momentum, keep pushing, keep fighting. And you will continuously hear his name from me.

• John Yang:

  Selwyn Jones. Thank you very much.

• Selwyn Jones:

  Thank you, my man.