Thread by @washingtonpost

As the world tried to make sense of George Floyd’s death, his girlfriend, Courteney Ross, was trying to make sense of her place in it.

“I’ve never felt more isolated ... everyone’s on this journey, and I still don’t know what to do or what to feel.” wapo.st/3o1n81A

Ross had begun to treat Floyd’s death as a private pain that did not intersect with the struggle it represented.

As she contends with her searing personal loss, she has also sought to make sense of her place as a White woman in the struggle for racial justice.

Ross, who as a child was bused to Black neighborhoods to help integrate the Minneapolis school system, had long understood how stereotypes operated in this city, which had glaring inequalities between Black and White residents. wapo.st/3o1n81A

During the murder trial against Derek Chauvin, Ross was anticipating an opportunity: to humanize Floyd for the jury.

Prosecutors had asked her to testify, and she relished the opportunity to tell jurors about the man she loved.

Ross spent half an hour on the stand.

As the trial ticked on, Ross wondered: “What if I’m the White girl who ruined it?”

All she could do was wait. Then, a text from her mom: The verdict was in.

“Guilty!” someone shouted outside the courthouse on April 20. wapo.st/3ts2x7S

“When you hear ‘guilty,’ it’s for everybody,” Ross said. “It’s for everybody that they did wrong. But I know the reality of things ... It takes so long to make huge systematic changes.”

Outside the courthouse, Ross talked about the need to reopen cases, and about the other girlfriends and wives and mothers who have yet to see justice for their loved ones.

Then she went home.

“Brookie,” Ross said to her sister, “I still miss him.” wapo.st/3o1n81A