Renee Good shouldn’t have been the tipping point

Maritza Baptiste, Contributing Writer

Every time the state kills someone, our reaction is tainted by racial bias — whether we realize it or not. 

We watched as President Donald Trump increased the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in cities across the country. We watched as people were dragged out of their homes and thrown into detention camps. We watched as at least 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025. 

The deaths of these individuals — most of whom were people of color —  passed through the news cycle with little to no coverage. Now the city of Minneapolis is in unrest over the murder of Renee Good, a white woman, at the hands of an ICE officer. 

There were general protests against ICE across the country, but not like what we are seeing in Minneapolis. The cause has garnered national attention and outrage online. Politicians are rushing to either defend ICE or condemn “violent” protests. 

The unrest has only been exacerbated further by the ruthless killing of Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE officers this past Saturday.

We are witnessing the appointment of a new martyr in a cause that fights against authoritarian practices that primarily affect minority populations. 

The martyr we have chosen to represent said cause is a white woman. 

This isn’t to say that Good being murdered by ICE is any less wrong or horrific, but the response to her death has been shockingly disproportionate in comparison to the countless others killed by ICE, many of whom were people of color. 

We must recognize that this country is still deciding whose suffering matters and whose doesn’t.

In 2020, we had widespread protests against police brutality — against the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and many others. Millions took to the streets or to social media. People contacted their elected officials to enact changes in the law. 

That didn’t come without pushback — counter protests, paid leave for corrupt police officers and dog-whistle terms used to demonize the unarmed people of color who were victimized by police. 

George Floyd and the other Black people who were victims of police brutality were not allowed to be victims. Instead, they were called drug addicts, thugs, criminals and domestic terrorists — and we let it happen.

When that same racially-charged rhetoric is turned against a white woman though — alarm bells went off. Our image of white innocence was tarnished and we found it intolerable. 

The collective anger over Good’s murder is not misplaced, but whatever progress we achieve, if any, will be poisoned by our racist selectivity. 

Keith Porter, Parady La, Heber Sanchaz Dominguez, Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz, Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres and Geraldo Lunas Campos are just some of the names of those who have died at the hands of ICE.

Until we can grieve and allow space for people of color to be victims in the same way white people can be, we won’t see real progress for anyone. 

We saw glimpses of racial reckoning in 2020. We saw that our country is capable of fighting back against the authoritarian police state, alongside and in honor of the marginalized people that are disproportionately victimized by that system. We are capable of deciding who matters and who we grieve. We have a responsibility to acknowledge and work against our racial biases. 

We don’t need another white martyr — we need real change.