Tony Sanneh’s Statement on the Derek Chauvin Verdict

As a community-serving organization, and as a Black male CEO of a nonprofit focused on equitably serving youth and families from multiple racial and ethnic communities, I believe that no outcome in the trial of Derek Chauvin ends the systemic issues and racial inequity we face and experience daily as people of color. 

While we at The Sanneh Foundation applaud that legal justice was done in the trial of Derek Chauvin, and rightfully expect justice for the police killing of Daunte Wright, racial injustice will not end as a result of these verdicts.  

The work of challenging systems of structural racism is ours; the resistance to generations of racism will take place in our neighborhoods, community centers, schools, and lastly, in our government systems.  

We call on all those in our communities to undertake activism and intentional investment in communities of color at all levels, because creating an equitable society and dismantling systemic racism in the United States will not be the result of a day in court or the prosecution of individual criminal acts. 

These moments of justice must be joined together with historical consciousness, life-long commitment, coalition building, and collective action to create a racially just society that honors the lives and humanity of all those past, present and future.

—CEO, Tony Sanneh