When I arrived in Minneapolis, the one thing that I knew I 100% wanted to go see was the famous, original George Floyd mural. Ya’ll know I love street art. This is arguably the most famous mural in the world right now, so I had to make the pilgrimage. I had some vague awareness that there would be some remnants from the protests around it… but I was not prepared for what I found here.
George Floyd Square was one of the most powerful places I have ever visited. I’m not sure how long it will stay in its current form… but I hope some sort of city ordinance intervenes to preserve it this way forever. Let me show you what I saw here.
I don’t know what I expected when I showed up in Mississippi. I had some vague aspirations about getting out into the legendary Delta to see pieces of the Blues Trail, but I wasn’t sure how realistic it was to cover all of that ground in the short time I had. I thought it would be cool to visit the Crossroads, but everybody I know that has been there told me it’s literally just an intersection in the middle of nowhere. So I wasn’t sure it was worth the drive. This probably doesn’t sound like the beginning of a great article. I really thought of the Blues mostly in the past tense so I wasn’t expecting to find anything in Mississippi but some history. But OHHHHH MAMA! I have never been more wrong in my LIFE!
I got the chance to visit Mississippi recently, and that just so happened to be on the weekend of Juneteenth, 2021. Mississippi is not a place that tends to be high on anybody’s travel bucket list—least of all mine—but the opportunity presented itself, so I went for it! Honestly, I have always been curious.
Today we’re going to talk about the elephant in the room: race in the Deep South. And just like with any other article I write, I don’t claim to be an expert. I’m just a white dude trying his best to understand the world around him and become a better person along the way. And I am, like the rest of us, a work in progress.
