The Protests Following the Death of George Floyd

by Joshua Yuan

The murder of George Floyd was no doubt an absolute tragedy. It was a symptom of a larger disease that has been plaguing the United States as a nation ever since it was founded on July 4th 1776. 

Although much progress has been made regarding the issue in the past century, there’s still a long way to go. However, as shocking and dreadful as the murder was, responses from some elements of the protesters has been nothing short of appalling.

Protests in the US

Though peaceful demonstrations have taken place and are still taking place, there has been an alarming level of violence, ranging from assaults on police officers to the damaging and looting of private properties, stores and shops. This has resembled riots rather than protests; victims of these actions are in general small business owners who were trying to make ends meet and police officers who were simply doing their jobs of maintaining law and order. When questions were asked about these events, a significant number of activists have either simply swept them aside or have claimed that ‘It’s all for a good cause!’, and that the end justifies the means.

Does the end justify the means?

In the name of the establishment of racial equality, it appears that activists of the movement undoubtedly have the moral high ground. However, no level of moral superiority can, and will ever be able to justify many of the violent actions committed in the past week or so. The danger of phrases such as ‘the end justifies the means’ and ‘it’s all for a good cause’ has been taught to us by lessons of history. The French Revolution of 1789, under the glorious banner  of 'Liberte, egalite, fraternite' led to tens of thousands of people being sent to the guillotine. The proletarian revolutions in the Russian empire led to the perishing of millions in the name of equality. The end never justifies the means, and all actions must be carefully scrutinised, no matter how noble their causes appear to be. 

Social media tyranny

To say that the #BlackLivesMatter movement has taken social media by storm would be a massive understatement. Interestingly enough, the current state of social media greatly resembles Communist China during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76. During the Cultural Revolution, people who were not seen as ardent supporters of the communist cause were denounced as 'counter-revolutionaries', 'fifth columnists' and 'enemies of the people'. Currently, on social media, people who have been judged not to be supportive enough of the BLM cause as labelled as 'tolerators of racism' and 'just as bad as the oppressors'. Many activists, convinced of their moral supremacy, use social media posts to openly shame people who are not very vocal on the issue, effectively establishing a tyranny. It is also worth mentioning that the social media madness isn't just tyrannical and dogmatic in its nature; it is also detrimental to the very cause which they claim to be working for. Actions of many vocal activists online can be seen by the 'silent majority' as unreasonable and perhaps even aggressive, thus alienating sympathisers and potential supporters of the cause. 

Conclusion Like in any civilised nation where law and order exist, murderers are tried by jury, and social changes are made through political reforms. Problems are never solved by people experiencing rushes of revolutionary zeal and taking to the streets, using force to demand changes. Ultimately, history has shown that it was suffragists, not the suffragettes, that won women the vote.