"Do Americans still believe in mass protest? Or do we just not know of any other possible mechanism, outside voting, for achieving social change? When we take to the streets-which we still do, in great numbers-do we expect something to come of it, or are we out there simply because our understanding of American history tells us that this is what we are supposed to do next?"
"The killing of Renee Nicole Good, a thirty-seven-year-old mother and American citizen, at the hands of an ICE agent, this past Wednesday, took place less than a mile away from where George Floyd was murdered, in Minneapolis, in May, 2020. That proximity is merely a staggering, tragic coincidence; still, it serves as a reminder that state violence is never merely local, especially if it is captured on camera and spread across the internet."
"Good's and Floyd's killings were separated also by roughly five and a half years, a span that has cast a strange, spectral feel over the news, as if some important and potentially world-changing rage has returned to haunt us, though we can't quite make out its contours. Could people take to the streets again, like they did in 2020? Do we remember the tear-gassing, the fires, the movement of crowds under street lights?"
Many Americans continue to turn to mass protest as a mechanism for social change beyond voting. The killing of Renee Nicole Good, a thirty-seven-year-old mother and American citizen, by an ICE agent occurred less than a mile from George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis. That proximity and the spread of video underscore that state violence can have national resonance, not merely local impact. Repeated televised killings revive a spectral anger and uncertainty about whether people will mobilize again as they did in 2020. Memories of tear-gassing, fires, and dispersed crowds make recent events feel historically distant and unsettled.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]