The horrific loss of life of Ahmaud Arbery modified legal guidelines in Georgia.
However has his homicide modified hearts and attitudes?
Now, Feb. 23 shall be remembered annually as Ahmaud Arbery Day in Georgia.
However who will acknowledge the day, in years to return, and who will bear in mind the racism and hate that led to him being gunned down in a Brunswick, Georgia neighborhood?
Following his loss of life, Georgia lawmakers handed hate crimes laws that impose enhanced prison sentencing pointers when a hate crime is deliberately dedicated primarily based on race, intercourse, sexual orientation, colour, faith, nationwide origin, psychological incapacity or bodily incapacity. The hate crime legislation additionally requires legislation enforcement companies to doc all hate crimes for statewide and federal databases.
Georgia lawmakers dismantled the state’s Jim Crow period citizen’s arrest legislation. Whereas that’s welcome information, it was a very long time coming and, frankly, it was unbelievable the antiquated legislation had been on the books in our state for therefore lengthy.
Rightly so, individuals throughout the state of Georgia — together with the members of a Brunswick jury who discovered three males responsible of the homicide — have been shocked by what they noticed on video as the lads chased, then killed, Arbery.
We mustn’t ever cease being shocked and horrified.
However, the phrases of Arbery’s mom, Wanda Cooper-Jones, on the Nationwide Middle for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, when the Ahmaud Arbery Day decision was learn, are poignant and stark.
“Legal guidelines altering is just the start,” she mentioned. “Subsequent we should change the minds and notion of Black males on this nation. My son was killed as a result of another person’s notion of Black males, my Black son.”
Altering legal guidelines, regardless of how arduous, will show to be a lot simpler than altering minds and perceptions.
Convicting these three assailants of homicide is a begin for Georgia.
Convicting them of federal hate crimes is a begin for the USA.
Abolishing antiquated state legal guidelines that gave cowl to crimes in opposition to individuals of colour, once more, is a crucial step in our evolution.
Naming a day in honor of Arbery, is a crucial and significant gesture.
Additionally it is heartening to know that school scholarships in Arbery’s identify will assist present an training for younger Black males.
However what issues most, is the altering of hearts.
Once more, Arbery’s mom mentioned it finest, “As everyone knows, nothing will carry my son again, however I do know that God needs us to (repurpose) the ache into service to make life higher for different younger males like Ahmaud.”
Jim Zachary is the editor of The Valdosta Each day Occasions, CNHI director of newsroom coaching and improvement and president emeritus of the Georgia First Modification Basis.