Changing Times: COVID & George Floyd

Changing Times: COVID and George Floyd

In case you aren’t on social media, haven’t watched the constant influx of news and haven’t stepped foot outside your home due to COVID-19, there’s a lot that’s been happening. Days before the world began reopening, there was another in-custody death, this time with the Minneapolis Police Department. But first, let’s discuss COVID-19.

From March through May, most of us were home bound with the exception of essential employees. The world had shut down. At the time, the first phase of reopening had still seemed like a pigment of our imagination. Restaurants operated at reduced hours, if they were open at all. Thousands of businesses had closed since the onset of COVID-19. Events were cancelled. And teachers and students alike were still grappling with newly structured online curricula that some never grasped.

But on May 25th, and the days and weeks that followed, little of that mattered after George Floyd was murdered at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers. Outside, a small crowd witnessed the unthinkable tragedy.

Already shut in due to COVID-19, everything had come to a halt. As videos and photos of officers’ negligent actions circulated the masses, the world watched in horror. In sadness. In shock. And then the world began to erupt in what will become one of the most widely-televised fights against police brutality since the Civil Rights era. Protests continue around the world. The fight will continue. It’s been a long time coming but the state of the world is changing. Finally.