Anna Lapid

Artist's Statement

A black person is killed by a police officer in the U.S. at the rate of more than one every other day. George Floyd’s death sparked numerous protests that were happening the summer I started this quilt. I had to put away the unfinished quilt to return to campus and while the trial of just one police officer in Minneapolis was happening. I was urged by a colleague to submit a piece of art just as the trial of Derek Chauvin concluded, and so I felt impelled to finish and submit this response to civil unrest and the continuing use-of-force violence.

The text in this quilt highlights the lack of accountability in the use of force combined with unconscious bias and the targeting of African Americans, who do not have the same privilege of not being stopped by the police; the American uprising in response to those injustices; and the continuing question of when will we as a nation take Black experiences seriously and listen uncomfortably to what they’re saying and not deny the truth of their experiences.