But my generation, Gen Z, recognizes the pattern. We’ve inherited not only the pain, but the clarity that comes with witnessing repeated injustice. We don’t see Floyd’s murder as an isolated tragedy. We see it as part of a long, unbroken line of lives taken, voices silenced and futures denied. And still, we carry those names, not as a burden, but as a mandate.

Because what we choose to remember will define what we’re willing to accept. And we refuse to forget.

Haley Taylor Schlitz, attorney and writer based in St. Paul

Five years after the murder of George Floyd, I wish I could say I feel hopeful. I want to believe Minnesota can become a beacon of justice in a nation plagued throughout its history by white supremacist terror. But in truth, the change we’ve needed hasn’t come.