Link Search Menu Expand Document
Publications
  1. VII. CONCLUSION: AMERICAN PROTEST, GLOBAL FREEDOM
    1. Table of Contents

VII. CONCLUSION: AMERICAN PROTEST, GLOBAL FREEDOM

251 Id.

252 Id.

253 Id.

254 Garrison, supra note 218.

255 Angelo & Chaves, supra note 247.

256 Garrison, supra note 218.

257 Garrison, supra note 215.

America is having a moment. The nation was founded on dissent and countless Americans have channeled anger into action, from the Colonial-era tax revolts that sparked the American Revolution, the labor, housing and busing protests that defined the 1960s civil rights movement, to the modern era and the #Me Too Movement.258 In the proud tradition of American dissent, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement began in 2013 after twenty-eightyear-old George Zimmerman was acquitted of criminal charges after fatally shooting seventeen-year old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.259 In protest, three Black women started the BLM movement using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter to stop societal devaluation of the lives of peoples of color.260 The next year, in 2014, two additional Black men were killed by police officers – Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City. Videos of their deaths went viral on social media and further galvanized calls for police accountability.261

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was asphyxiated in police custody after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds.262 His death-struggle and desperate cries to “mama” for help, caught on tape, shocked the nation.263 According to Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, Derek Chavin, the former officer who killed Floyd, knew what he was doing because

258 Elliot McLaughlin, How George Floyd’s Death Ignited a Racial Reckoning that Shows no Signs of Slowing Down, CNN (Aug. 9, 2020, 11:31 AM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/09/us/george-floyd-protests-differentwhy/index.html.

259 Sahar F. Aziz & Khaled A. Beydoun,* Fear of A Black and Brown Internet: Policing Online Activism,* 100 B.U. L. REV. 1151, 1162 (2020)

260 Id. at 1163.

261 Id.

262 Evan Hill et al., How George Floyd was Killed in Police Custody, N.Y. TIMES (May 31, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html.

263 Christy Oglesby, ‘I Need White Mamas to come Running’, CNN (May 29, 2020, 3:14 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/28/opinions/george-floyd-cry-for-mama-hitshome-oglesby/index.html

he had taken specific training on preventing asphyxiation.264 George Floyd’s name will likely go down in history besides Rosa Parks and Emmet Till. Prior to Floyd’s death, the highest estimate for any American protest, the 2017 Women’s March, was 4.6 million. Polls show that in the summer of 2020, as many as 21 million adults attended a BLM or police brutality protest. America is realizing that society too often has turned to law enforcement to address challenges faced by Black communities when police response is inadequate: “[y]ou don’t have schools that function well; you don’t have teachers that get paid; you don’t have hospitals in some communities . . . . This creates the kinds of conditions that make people feel like police are necessary, but the solution is to actually reinvest in those things that give people a way to live a good life . . . .”265

Before America can change how Africa and Latin America perceive it vis-à-vis China, America must itself change. Historian Tyran Steward captured something of the sentiment of the age when he noted that social justice demands, such as changing the name of the Washington football team, were once nonstarters but are actually happening.266 Police accountability bills honoring George Floyd were introduced on the House floor,267 companies are now recognizing Juneteenth, the oldest known holiday honoring slavery’s end in the U.S. and giving employees a paid day off from work to observe it,268 the state of Mississippi is coming to terms with

264 Brad Parks, George Floyd’s Death was ‘Murder’ and the Accused Officer “Knew what he was doing’ Minneapolis Police Chief Says, CNN (June 24, 2020, 10:08 AM), https;//www.cnn.com/2020/06/24/us/minneapolis-policechief-comment-george-floyd-trnd/index.html.

265 Adam Serwer, The New Reconstruction: The United States Has its Best Opportunity in 150 Years to Belatedly Fulfill its Promise as a Multiracial Democracy, THE ATLANTIC (Oct. 2020), https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/10/the-nextreconstruction/615475/.

266 McLaughlin,* supra* note 258.

267 Clare Foran et al., House Approves Police Reform Bill Named in Honor of George Floyd, CNN (June 25, 2020, 8:57 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/politics/house-police-reformlegislation-vote/index.html.

268 Clare Duffy, A Growing Number of Companies are Giving Employees the Day Off to Celebrate Juneteenth, CNN

its racist history and changing its flag,269 monuments to Confederate Generals are toppling,270 and the National Football League is supporting the right of its players to kneel during the National Anthem.271 Covid-19 has played a dual role in the protests’ momentum: the pandemic kept people home, with more time on their hands to consume news of Floyd’s death at the hands of police.272 The coronavirus “exposed the interconnectedness of human vulnerability, which provides a new lens through which … [to view] Floyd’s killing … [and] unveiled the way in which we are all interrelated and haptic.”273

The U.S. must act now to emerge victorious in the coming global showdown with China. Woe to the world if America does not seize this moment. The U.S. must embrace competition with China. Beijing is brutalizing the Uyghurs and extinguished freedom in Hong Kong. Its “wolf-warrior diplomacy” is remarkable, not for its success, but rather for how it showcases China’s contempt for much of the world. Its surveillance state is frightening. It is true China’s story is remarkable. It emerged from the rubble of the mid-twentieth century to become a great power. But China needs Africa and Latin America to sustain its growth. Most importantly, Beijing, merely by not being the West, inherits post-colonial goodwill even as it creates neo-colonial effects in those same regions. BRI is no mere building program; it is the very vision of a Chinese global tomorrow. At first it may appear China has the upper hand; 2020 was a year of infamy

(June 18, 2020, 3:43 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/18/business/companies-observingjuneteenth/index.html.

269 Mark Berman & Ben Guarino, Mississippi Governor Signs Bill Changing State’s Flag, Abandoning Confederate Symbol, THE WASHINGTON POST (June 30, 2020, 6:12 PM), https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/mississippi-flag-confederacyremoved/2020/06/30/f47df152-baed-11ea-8cf5-9c1b8d7f84c6_story.html.

270 McLaughlin, supra note 258.

271 Vanessa Romo, NFL on Kneeling Players’ Protests: ‘We Were Wrong,’ Commissioner Says, NPR (June 5, 2020, 7:53 PM), https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racialjustice/2020/06/05/871290906/nfl-on-kneeling-players-protests-we-were-wrongcommissioner-says.

272 McLaughlin, supra note 258.

273 Id.

in America: the pandemic, an overdue reckoning with America’s original sin of racism, and extreme partisan politics have left many scars. Yet the factors that divide may also unite. If the U.S., together, can meet this moment, the world may have a new rebirth of freedom.

Table of Contents