On Monday, a day after the George Floyd protest, we spoke with a variety of locals—activists, small business owners, volunteers—about how they had experienced the march.
It became clear that not only did they acknowledge the purpose and gravity of the demonstration but were also in the midst of processing its aftermath and what moving forward will look like.
They spoke of curbing police abuse, white complicity in systems that protect those abuses as well as white supremacy. But, it was Max Viltz, owner of Village Treasures, who put matters in their most elemental terms.
“What do we have to do to get people’s attention that it has to stop,” she said. “We cannot be killed and gunned down in the streets like animals.”