George Floyd Protests: A call for racial justice

Racism in the United States has existed since the colonial era, when white Americans were given legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights while the same rights were denied to other races and minorities. Largely, African-Americans faced restrictions on their political, social, and economic freedoms throughout much of US history. 

Source: pixby.com 

The death of an African-American, George Floyd, by a white Police officer has spurred massive, ongoing demonstrations in cities across the US. Demonstrators gathered at the site of the incident in Minneapolis, where the first protest commenced; demanding justice for Floyd and seeking to call attention to decades of police abuse toward black Americans.

 As mass gatherings continue throughout the US, police have arrested over 9,000 protesters and a number of civilians and officers have died. Many have noted that the severity of racism and police brutality is obvious and made clear by the risks so many are willing to take to protest during the world’s worst modern-day pandemic.

These protests on "Black Lives Matter!" have spread like nobody could have imagined. The crowd, overwhelmingly young and racially mixed, mostly wore masks but paid no attention to social-distancing constraints. Many regarded the danger posed by the virus as proof of their commitment to the anti-racist cause. Unexpectedly, these protests have started blowing up all over the world including cities like Paris, Tokyo, London etc.

Image showing "Black Lives Matter" Protests in US. Source: elle.comm

Just after two weeks of protests, incredible results are witnessed. Confederate monuments and Racist statues across US symbolizing racism are now getting removed by the government.

Companies are trotting out apologies: Among them, the founders of Reformation, Dollskill, Refinery29, and Bando, who have all acknowledged that they’ve messed up in the past and pledged to do better.(The latter two have said they will step down from top roles at their companies.)

Also, the NFL authority apologized saying "We, NFL, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people. We admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest."

Interestingly, people are reading more about racism now. Books on systematic racism are making bestseller lists as protests continue across country. Six of the top ten best-selling books on Amazon are on the topic of race in America. 'White Fragility', 'The new Jim Crow', 'Just Mercy' are some examples.

People of color are getting unexpected apologies for racist incidents from people in their past. For a lot of people, the unexpected apologies have made them reflect on just how much the racism in question impacted them. Most people who received apologies felt optimistic and cynical in equal measure.

BUT is this apologetic behavior towards racism real? Apologies must be followed up with action to create ‘more lasting social change’- experts say.

  

Published by

Shamli Deshmukh | World Uncensored.

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