Unrest and Hope

What to Know: Unrest over the death of George Floyd continues to spread nationwide.

The TPPF Take: We can pursue justice and peace together.

“The violence is not just putting innocent people in harm’s way but sends the exact opposite message of treating each other with respect and dignity,” says TPPF’s Kevin Roberts. “Destruction and damage accomplish nothing. America has been through tough times and dealt with difficult issues, and it’s our respect for civil discourse that will see us through this time, as well.”

“We as Americans — black, white, Asian, Hispanic, and beyond — have an obligation to understand why African Americans are protesting now,” said TPPF’s Alice Marie Johnson. “These protests come from a place of deep pain. As a daughter of Jim Crow Mississippi, I’ve seen too much of this. I’ve lived too much of this. When your African American brothers, sisters, and neighbors see a black man lying in the street with a knee on his neck, we see a metaphor for African Americans. It is a painful reminder that we have much more work to do to make sure these injustices do not continue. Out of this pain I hope will arise honest dialogue and action to find common ground.”

“The pain that’s out there is real and we have to take it seriously,” says TPPF’s Richard Johnson. “Conservatives, in particular, need to understand it — because it is our shared principles of civil society, opportunity, and liberty that are needed to address it. When American institutions and American communities are alienated from one another, America does not work. Creating that connection, the unity of one, is the greatness of our nation. When we do this, we can overcome the inheritance of distrust.”