I think the reason why George Floyd caused such an uproar in the world was because people were fed up with the brutality towards black people. It was common knowledge that black people were being treated unequally, however not many people knew about police brutality and how the police abused their power towards black people. In the video with George Floyd it was clearly obvious that the policeman was going against basic protocol and suffocating Floyd to the point where he was going to die. There was no need for that man’s knee to be on Floyd’s neck. Once this video got out to the internet and raised awareness, people became infuriated. It made people realize that this is a reoccurring thing happening all over the world and it needs to come to an end.
I was surprised when Wendy Andrea made a twitter post about Floyd and received a lot of backlash from her own community. People were saying she only cared about American problems and was ignoring things that were happening in her own country. Basically saying she was so colonized and only cared about foreigners. I believe that people connected so much with the Floyd situation because they realized this isn’t only about themselves. This situation is relatable in every part of the world. Similar occurrences happen to different communities and people realize this isn’t right and its time for a change.
Society’s movements can spur change in another by making people inspired to stand up for what is right. People around the world see how these movements can cause change, so they want to join in on the movement and be apart of it. There is always power in numbers, so the more people in a movement, the more likely change is going to happen. For example, one person seeing that all their friends are marching for BLM will make them want to join in too. The larger the movement the more awareness it spreads and just like that, it will gain many followers.
Another example of a movement that sparked other movements around the world is the LGBTQ movement. This movement started because people wanted to raise awareness for the LGBTQ community and wanted these people to stop being treated unfairly because of their sexual orientation. This movement led to the Humans right act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Because of this, it sparked a movement in Canada that led to Quebec’s Human Rights code to be amended in 1977, prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
“It was common knowledge that black people were being treated unequally”
Isn’t that terrible, that it can be put as fact that we as society have normalized racism to the point that’s it’s common knowledge that no one questions it until a catastrophe happens that takes someone’s life from our reality. I really do see how the LGBTQ community is an amazing example of how change is spun all over the world.
I personally think that no matter what others think, people can be anything they want to be. It’s fascinating to me that the LGBTQ community exists because people can communicate about who they come out as. I think that anyone in the world who fits in the LGBTQ can express themselves of to anyone who they really are so that people can see and understand where they are coming from.