For Selwyn Jones, George Floyd’s uncle, grief is fire.
“There’s no such thing as grieving for me. Grieving for me is fire,” Jones, who goes by Uncle Selwyn, told GBH’s Morning Edition co-host Paris Alston on Monday. “I could have sat on the couch and cried all day, all night. But when you come up in adverse conditions that we came up in, you know, nothing else to do but fight.”
Last month marked the third anniversary of his nephew’s tragic murder by police in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death sparked a wave of civil rights protests around the state, country and even the world as millions of people came together to call for change.
“I believe in miracles because, for three days, everybody in the world stood up and they said and called my big sister’s baby boy’s name, George Floyd,” he said.
In the years since, Jones has been focused on making change. He co-founded the Hope929 Foundation, a charity focused on promoting civil rights to create positive change.
He’s been advocating at state houses across the country for medical civil rights bills, which would require police officers to call for medical assistance if they see a person in medical crisis, or if a person police officers are interacting with tells them they need medical attention. The bill has been introduced in Massachusetts, but has not passed.
“That would put people that came in touch in any way, shape or form with police officers to have an opportunity for health, to preserve life,” he said.
And he’s been hosting a podcast, “Setting It Straight With Selwyn Jones.”
“I think all the bad things that I’ve ever seen come right before my eyes,” Jones said. “I’ve been living this way and feeling this way as a Black man in the South forever. And I had an opportunity to move forward, to make a difference.”
"No matter what we do, we still had to put our foot on that and keep the pedal to the metal and just keep pushing."Selwyn Jones, George Floyd’s uncle
He has seen some progress in the last three years, he said: Some states have outlawed no-knock warrants, for instance.
But the task of eliminating racism is a big one. In the summer of 2020, Americans poured into the streets to protest Floyd’s murder, painted streets with the words “Black Lives Matter” and put out a barrage of anti-racist corporate statements. Now, there are more frequent reports of white supremacist groups and book bans.
“We don’t live in a perfect world and things will never be perfect. But things have to change,” he said. “The one thing that we really need to get rid of, and I don't think it will ever happen in my lifetime, is racism. ... No matter what we do, we still had to put our foot on that and keep the pedal to the metal and just keep pushing, keep pushing for change, keep pushing for different opportunities for people to hear our voice.”
And a harsh reality is that, in the years since people chanted George Floyd’s name, there have been many more names of people killed by police officers. And the turning point — the point at which such protests are no longer necessary — is distant.
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“I will never see it. I will be dead and turned to dust,” Jones said. “But I know my whole process here, dear, is to plant the seed. If you plant the seed, it will grow.”
Success does come, he said, even in “in small bits and pieces.”
“There are going to be a lot of more names. My name might be one of the names. You never know,” Jones said. “But all I know is this: Winners win because of the fight that we put into the battle.”
He has hope for younger generations, he said.
“I just want to make it so you can walk down the street, my dear, and people say, ‘Look at that beautiful Nubian princess,’ ‘Look at that beautiful Black woman,’” he told Alston. “We’ve been stripped of our heritage. We’ve been stripped of our music, we’ve been stripped of our religion. We’ve been stripped of it. We don’t even have our own last name. Guess what? We don’t ever give up. We fight to the end. Because if we didn’t fight, where would we be?”
This Juneteenth, he said, he wants to see people of color from different backgrounds more united.
“All people of color, we should bow our heads and we should say, ‘Hey, man, this was the start of a long road that we’ve been fighting for a long, long, long time,’” Jones said. “Let’s continue to stay together and fight like heck, and make this place a better place for us.”
