In a world which sometimes feels like a chaotic array of scenes in a somewhat terribly edited movie, we get to play the main characters in our stories; and often act like background actors in someone else’s; we celebrate the good times, and go through the bad times, often thinking of them as of the storm before the calm, holding on so tightly, to an abstract idea of a happy ending. In the past six months, however, that idea has started to wane.
Opening social media in the morning, instead of mindlessly scrolling through the feed, maybe smirking at a meme a friend has sent us, checking the messages, most of us now stop at every post, to read the latest news on the protests in the US. Only a month ago, the empty space could be filled out with the news on an appalling number of lives that Covid-19 took away from us. Few months before that, we’d read, with our hearts shrinking, about the Australian fires, and with our minds strained, about the tensions between the United States and Iran. For the past months, for so many, life has felt like a constant and fast-paced spin of gruesome events, happening around us, and not with us; making you feel kicked out to a viewer’s seat in your own movie, unable to scream cut, or re-write scenes.
But despite the prospects of the future looking daunting, and 2020 teaching us to never catch ourselves thinking “things cannot get worse”, we should not let that initial, bleak hope for getting a better ending fade away. Because in times like this, it’s crucial to remember, that the world is not coming to an end. Instead, it is going through a pit stop - a critical juncture - that, by possibly destroying everything we thought we knew of the world, paves a road towards building a better one.
Throughout history, moments like these have never been pretty. We are not the first generation to go through the complicated, and often brutal process of societal transformation, and are most certainly not the last one. Black Death, one of the most deadly pandemics in modern history, has been a pivotal step towards the Industrial Revolution, women having more equal rights and life, for most people, genuinely improving. The Civil Rights movement in the United States had begun in 1955 and lasted a long and dreadful 14 years until 1968 when a series of crucial acts and legislations had finally passed, but those 14 years could not have possibly been easy. Nevertheless, people had hope, and that’s what we need now. As we observe the past filled with injustice, it might lure many into a dismal thought, that no progress has been made. That could not be further away from the truth. In the past 50 years, society has undergone major developments, with a public outlook towards the issues of race, gender, and sexuality, shifting closer towards acceptance and empowerment. Today, more women than ever are occupying positions of leadership, with a 24.3% of national parliamentarians being female; the number might not seem large, and frankly, it’s not, but it’s a double of what you would see in 1995, and that is progress. Today might be one of the safest times to be a part of the LGBT community, with a long road ahead of us towards achieving a completely safe world, but that also is progress. SpaceX has sent the first space team in more than 30 years to space, and if that is not a major step towards a more advanced future, I don’t know what is. There are infinite reasons to believe in the good in the world. Alack sometimes, there are instances that can shake those beliefs.
On the 25th of May, at a cost of the life of George Floyd, the whole world has witnessed that notwithstanding all the progress, it is not yet fully safe to be black in the United States. If we are to dig deeper, we’ll discover that it is also less safe to be Latino/a, Asian, or a representative of a race or sexuality anyhow different from what has been silently normalized for centuries. Everyone has witnessed that a country can be ruled by an ignorant man, who supports segregation and violence, and that this country was once deemed as one of the most forward-looking and liberal in the world.
That being said, we are also witnessing thousands and thousands of people going on the streets, risking their lives, to protest against these ideas; to speak up for the man who cannot speak anymore. We are witnessing people of all races coming together to stand against this injustice, and fight for a brighter future; a future where a crime like this would not be repeated. There are policemen out there who stand with the protestors, and politicians, who want to see a genuine change. As of the latest updates, all four men involved in the murder of George Floyd are awaiting trial. That is not, of course, a solution to a bigger problem, but it is certainly a start.
To sum up, it has been complicated and yet, determining time. It has been a period of teaching ourselves social isolation, losing a generation, fearing to take a step outside, fearing for tomorrow. It’s been a period of re-evaluating our principles, re-evaluating our privilege, a wake-up call to finally starting to pay attention to what’s happening in the world. It has been a crack in rose-colored glasses. Despite this, years from now it will hopefully be remembered in history as a critical period. The juncture essential to taking the next step in our societal advancement, hopefully leaving people from all across the globe more united than ever.
