‘My son should be burying me’: America watches as Daunte Wright’s family says goodbye

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This article was published 21/04/2021 (1355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MINNEAPOLIS—“We came to bury the prince of Brooklyn Center,” civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton said Thursday afternoon during his eulogy at the funeral for 20-year-old Daunte Wright. “All of Minnesota has stopped today to honour the prince of Brooklyn Center.”

Parents across the country might have said a silent prayer that Sharpton would never have occasion to say a eulogy at the funeral of their own child. His words are powerful and righteous. His presence — and that of members of Congress and the governor — are an obvious honour. But if Sharpton is there, it so often means a person has passed from your family’s life and love into national significance as the victim of a tragic killing — that they have gone from being your loved one to being a martyr.

Katie and Aubrey Wright had the mournful honour to hear their son Daunte eulogized by Sharpton on Thursday, after he was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop in suburban Minneapolis last week. He came from a big family — they lined up by the dozens outside in the parking lot before the service, to be led in a procession by his parents and Sharpton into the Shiloh Temple in North Minneapolis just before noon.

Katie Wright spoke at the funeral of her son’s infectious smile and huge laugh. She called him “a brother and a joker,” whose life was given new meaning with the birth of his own son, Daunte Jr.

Daunte’s brother Dallas said they had had long talks about how that birth was leading to personal reinvention, “about the man he wanted to be for Junior. I was so proud of the man he was becoming.”

Daunte was voted class clown in high school, played basketball, was known as the life of the party by relatives and friends. But now, as a result of a traffic stop that led suddenly to his death, he has joined a group of men and women whose names stand as markers in the toll of this country’s systemic racism.

“There’s a martyr’s bench in the afterlife, Daunte. Take your seat,” Sharpton said. “Tell George Floyd who you are. Shake hands with Philando Castile.”

It was less than a year ago that Sharpton delivered a eulogy right here in Minneapolis for Floyd, and just two days ago that former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in his death. The Floyd family was present at Wright’s funeral, alongside the parents of Castile, Breonna Taylor, Jamar Clark and Oscar Grant. There to see Daunte off and welcome the Wrights into what lawyer Benjamin Crump called a fraternity no one wants to join — that of Black people who have lost a loved one to police violence.

Indeed, as the family was outside preparing to run a media gauntlet of hundreds of cameras, a community leader named Jay Webb told them, “The whole world is here to pay tribute to your baby. I need you to stand up tall.” Members of community organizations were on-hand helping to manage the crowd and provide outreach and security — We Push for Peace, Teaching Our Urban Community Hope, the Agape Movement, the Minnesota Freedom Fighters.

As the funeral was underway, a group of people were painting a mural of Daunte’s face onto a storefront down the street, and his name was being spelled out in candles by members of a local arts community in a park.

He will be remembered by his family, but he is known now around the world. “They will be comforted knowing that because of his sacrifice they’re going to change the laws of the land. Children unborn will know his name,” Sharpton said.

Elected officials were there to deliver a similar message. “May Daunte Wright serve as a guardian for all of us,” Rep. Ilhan Omar said, presenting Katie and Aubrey Wright with a flag that had been flown in their son’s honour over the Capitol in Washington.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz presented them with a proclamation dictating two minutes of silence across the state, and vowing reforms to address systemic racism and change policing.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she would tell her fellow senators that in Wright’s honour, they must pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and address racism. “It is on us,” she said. “We can do more. We must do more. For too long justice has come inch by inch when we should be miles ahead.”

Sharpton noted that the verdict in Floyd’s death this week, the first time a white Minnesota police officer has ever been convicted in the death of a black person, was a marker of that inch-by-inch change Klobuchar was talking about, especially given that 10 police officers had testified against Chauvin. “When you see the blue wall of silence tumble, that’s when you know change is coming,” he said.

Perhaps so. Another long-time civil rights activist, Rev. Jesse Jackson, also noted in appearances here this week that the accountability in Floyd’s death, and the multiracial crowds filling the streets to demand justice, pointed to progress. “Keep hope alive,” he had crowds chanting at the downtown courthouse Monday, and again at George Floyd Square on Tuesday.

Hope is alive. But a growing list of loved ones are not alive.

Another funeral for another lost son, father and brother. Noting the hole Wright’s loss will leave in the lives of those who loved him, including his son as he will grow up not knowing his father, Klobuchar said, “We cannot confuse accountability for justice.”

Maybe no one should also confuse martyrdom in death as a substitute for a long and loving life.

Katie Wright said she’d stayed up crying until 3 a.m., trying to think of what to say to the watching world at her son’s funeral. She shouldn’t have had to do that, she said. “My son should be burying me,” she said. “He’s going to be so missed.”

Aubrey Wright said he didn’t have the words to express what he wanted to say. “That was my son. I’m gonna, man …” he choked up, and stepped away.

Daunte’s uncle Bobby McGee, after sharing his own fond memories of laughter, said, “We’ve just got to do better as people.”

Correction — April 23, 2021: This article was edited to correct the spelling of the surname of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Edward Keenan is the Star’s Washington Bureau chief. He covers U.S. politics and current affairs. Reach him via email: ekeenan@thestar.ca