“But 100 years later, the n***o is still not free”, this was said by Martin Luther King Jr. Unfortunately, even 57 years later, and 63 years today since he gave his “I have a dream” speech in 1963, racism still persists. It seemed that even after the Civil Rights Act, racism still festered beneath the surface, a surface that erupted when George Floyd was killed on May 25th, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. George Floyd, a 46-year-old man, and one that is in our memory now, was arrested when he allegedly used a $20 counterfeit bill to purchase cigarettes at a convenience store called “Cup Foods”, whether it was intentional or unintentional, was not disclosed. The cashier accepted it, and put it on his own tab, believing that Floyd was not aware it was a counterfeit. His manager would then make him go confront Floyd, and they would eventually call 911. This is when Derek Chauvin arrives at the scene. Floyd did initially show resistance, but testimony has clarified that when he had been handcuffed and was positioned on the ground, this resistance ceased, yet the chokehold on his neck continued. It seemed that the police officers had felt so threatened by Floyd, and what would be eventually believed as black people as a whole, but let us not forget it was once the other way around, and what Chauvin did had reinforced that fear. Video footage captured his final pleas that would be witnessed by billions, exposing not just one man’s brutality, but a system’s indifference, a system in which even the law cannot protect them.
As Maya Angelou once said, “You may shoot me with your words. You may cut me with your eyes. You may kill me with your hatefulness. But still, like life. I’ll rise.”; and rise they did. Chauvin didn’t just brutally take a life; he sparked demonstrations, protests, and riots that burned cities across not only the United States, with 15-26 million participants alone, but globally. The Black Lives Matter movement could be regarded as having the potential to be a revolution, and some might say, a missed opportunity, because Black Lives Matter wasn’t just mere unrest; it was a call for a united front of people who had all been suppressed, and those who believe that no human should have to shoulder that. Diversity. The state of being different, but valued as the same, yet it seemed, and seems like many in the United States have not had the privilege. But it shouldn’t be a privilege. Rights should not be a privilege that is sought for, something you have to fight for, something you have to protest for for the last, nearly 400 years.
The Black Lives Movement would then be combated with “All Lives Matter” by the Americans who believed that they were starting to become too irrelevant, those who felt like their dominance was slipping away from them. Their lives never needed hashtags to reaffirm their value; their lives didn’t actually need a movement for them to live peacefully, to live comfortably enough to not have to worry about cops pulling a gun on them just because they were driving too quickly, or just because they were going on a run, or just because of their skin color. It wasn’t a movement to spread awareness about their struggles; it wasn’t solidarity; it was erasure. It was a movement to oppress black people speaking up at its core, just like how it was done before.