Protests erupted around the country, and demonstrations against police brutality occurred throughout the world in response to Floyd’s death. Petitions and calls to have all four officers responsible for his death were immediately followed by peaceful demonstrations. However, those protests quickly escalated into countless weeks of civil unrest that wreaked havoc across major American cities, impacting lives, devastating businesses, and destroying buildings.
So what has come of last summer’s endless period of strife and turmoil? The protests revealed that perhaps for the first time in U.S. history, the moment had come for a national reckoning with the country’s past. They brought closer scrutiny of the bastions and strongholds of systemic racism and the countless ways it manifests. They also brought to the world’s attention the far-too-frequent instances of violence inflicted upon minority communities by the very people hired to protect and serve everyone. It seems only natural that after so many well-documented instances of this type of injustice, people would eventually wake up and begin raising their voices against a system that continues to oppress.
