On the 1-year anniversary of George Floyd's death, we talk to his maternal uncle, Selwyn Jones, or Unc, as Floyd called him—a man large in stature and spirit, and a fixture in Floyd's life.
Jones is remarkable in the family for having evaded the traps awaiting poor Black men, through pro sports and later a career in sales and hospitality, and he tried to lay a path for Floyd. “I talked to him often,” Jones said. He told George many times, “Man, you know you need to get your butt right.”
Jones, who lives in central South Dakota, a six-hour drive west of Minneapolis, visited Floyd frequently when his nephew moved north from Houston. “It breaks my heart to know that happened to one of mine,” he said. “And I just… I cannot stop.” - excerpts from GQ Magazine, December 3, 2020.
Read the full GQ article here: https://www.gq.com/story/police-brutality-and-black-fatherhood-portfolio