In the podcast, “The Global Legacy of George Floyd”, people from various countries around the world were interviewed on their opinion and interpretation of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in June 2020. His death sparked a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and further brought to light the injustices that citizens have been subjected to at the hands of police. More so, it also brought the topic of systematic racism into the spotlight.

 

One of the most moving examples of this systematic racism was one that was given by a black lawyer in New Amsterdam. Typically, New Amsterdam is regarded as a very diverse, open, and inclusive city. In this case, the lawyer had brought forth his client, a white man, in front of a judge. For a period of approximately 2-3 minutes, the judge addressed the white man as if he was the lawyer representing the black man. Though the actual lawyer stated that he felt that this was a harmless mistake, it makes it quite apparent how black men, and black people in general are often viewed as criminals by the wider public. Additionally, even the right-wing Prime Minister of the Netherlands stated that there is no denial that there is systematic, or even institutional racism in the Netherlands. I believe that this confession is very important as it forces other in leadership positions to reevaluate the social dynamic within their own countries/territories.

 

I think that people in other countries were so moved by the BLM protest in other countries because racism doesn’t have borders. Therefore, everyone is subject to be affected by it equally no matter where you are. However, the proper exposure of these injustices prompts people world wide to be more accepting in general, and sympathetic to the things that other endure because of how they look. 

 

A great example of of how a movement in one country prompted other to make change is the Haitian Revolution. Haiti, which was previously a slave colony, started its revolution after hearing word of  the revolution ongoing in France. Furthermore, with the publishing of the “Declaration of the rights of Man and of the Citizen” in 1789,( just two years after the signing of the American Constitution) that proclaimed that all men were to be free and equal, there was a major push for the abolition of slavery in Haiti. This spurred a chain of events that eventually led to Haiti becoming the first independent nation that was formerly a slave colony in 1804. Word of this made its way to American plantations, sparking revolts that were unfortunately unsuccessful. However, the efforts to end slavery continued for many years (decades..) and as you know slavery was eventually abolished in the United States. Slavery was abolished in the United States a whopping 61 years later.