The de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture will present the 2020 Notre Dame Vita Institute, its annual intellectual formation program for pro-life leaders, as a series of five…
The following essay was shared with the Notre Dame Law School faculty by G. Marcus Cole, the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law. We are proud to publish it with his permission:
I am George Floyd. Except, I can breathe. And I can do something.
– G. Marcus Cole
Over the past several days, I have received numerous messages of care and support from friends, neighbors, and acquaintances, each of whom simply wanted to express their concern for how I might be feeling in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. For many, I am perhaps one of the only African-American men in their social or business circles. Others, especially those who know me well, are cognizant of my own personal experiences with racial violence. Their expressions of love and support are rooted in the fact that the circumstances surrounding the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery are strikingly similar to my own accounts of an attack on my father over fifty years ago, one I witnessed as a little boy. What my friends may not know, but surely suspect, is that each report of racial violence at the hands of a police officer or group of men brings to the surface the vivid memories of that terrible night.
