I think that George Floyd’s death sparked many global movements for a number of reasons. America has consistently been viewed as a major power in the world for many years. Everyone knows what’s going on in America, whether for the good or bad. With that being said, when something as tragic as this happens like it did with George Floyd, the whole world sees the response to it. Nobody can deny that racism and social injustice are a major issue in America, and George Floyd’s killing was the tipping point. It would not be tolerated anymore. BLM grabbed everyone’s attention towards the problem all over the world. Since so many people look up to America and see what was happening there, they seized their opportunity for equality as well.
After listening to the podcast, “The Global Legacy of George Floyd,” I found the example in Brazil to be the most surprising example in the podcast. They had a broadcast of heavy breathing on Comedy Central. After a few minutes, names of people who died in the US, as long as Brazil flashed across the screen. The speaker discusses a story about a 14 year old boy who was shot when the police were looking for gang members. The story gets worse; they took the body away in a helicopter and the family didn’t even know where he was until they saw him dead. There are clearly racial issues in Brazil, so the most surprising part to me was that after this broadcast, the response was we don’t want these “American issues” in their country. People looked straight at a huge problem and said I don’t want to deal with it. I found that to be very infuriating.
I found the speaker from New Zealand to be the most inspiring example from the podcast. To hear her talk about the way police treat certain people compared to others based on the equipment they use (like if a taser is necessary) really reminds me of the way the police operate in America. The speaker talks about how the police do not have firearms with them, in order to prevent them from being like a military walking the streets, but there was still some support for the police to be armed. After seeing what happened with George Floyd in America, they saw how dangerous it can be to give the police too much power/weapons, and they decided against their own police to be armed.
I think people in other societies are connected to what is happening in America with the BLM movement because there is racism in many places that we may not know about, which angers many people. Everyone should be treated equal, and there are no exceptions to that. I think that BLM provides a sense of hope that there can be equality anywhere.
It has been seen many times that one society’s actions can have great affects on another. A great example of this is the American Revolution. 1775 1789 The efforts of the revolutionists did not go unnoticed by the rest of the world. The French saw what had happened in America, and it gave them the confidence to rise up against the Monarchy and take them down. If it wasn’t for the American Revolution, who knows if the French would have ever tried to rise up against the Monarchy.
Ben just like you I was also taken aback when I heard about what happened in Brazil. The incident as a whole is really sad and to make it worse the boy was only 14 years old. I liked the way you used multiple examples from the podcast and how you drew a direct comparison of the situation in New Zealand to the one in the United States. It just goes to show that racism doesn’t only exist in America, but across the whole world. I to believe that the Black Matter movement provides hope that we can progress and have equality for all.
Your comparison of New Zealand and the United States really stood out to me. George Floyd’s death demonstrated the danger of armed police and deterred them from arming their own police. The United States however, has seen many examples of police brutality and yet, no changes were really made. I can also feel your frustration as when you mention Brazilians having a race problem right in front of them, and having them brush it off as an “American issue.” The global momentum towards greater equality will hopefully have Brazilians face their issues head on as well.
I agree that part fo the reason George Floyd’s death reached the entire world is partly because it happened in America. For better or worse, much of what happens around the world is centered around the U.S. Although having too much global influence can be problematic for others countries without it, the U.S. was able to use its influence to spark social justice movements worldwide. Americans like to believe that we are the greatest nation on earth, and with that belief comes the toxic mentality that we are a perfect nation and anyone who says otherwise hates this country. We cannot begin to address the social issues plaguing our country until we overcome this idea of American Exceptionalism.