These protests have revealed one thing about the United States of America. Many things actually, the gun culture is an identity, their police is heavily militarized, not just guns, dogs, methods, etc. The police is an EnFORCEing body with emphasis on force.


Thinking folks especially black folks should realise how much even the Democrats seem to use them for election props. Police departments are controlled by states and local authorities, yet it has taken a very destructive protest to get even these allies to face up to police brutality. These allies actually fund police and prisons more than they fund health , education and other important initiatives in black communities specifically and state wide in general.


The USA has a culture of protest, same for lots of other countries, but the USA is very important. The demographic cuts across as well. Young and old, all the generations etc.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLdG1br_x40

However for all the young people's activism, they don't vote. And even when they do, they ignore the local and state elections and usually focus on the national.


National has influence but real governance seems to happen locally, because even if national policies influence economy, jailing etc., local policies exert great influence on how those national policies impact locally.


All protests everywhere can be hijacked by bodies and we have seen it in the USA too. Reminds me of occupy nigeria and every other protest under former President Goodluck Jonathan. For all his faults, events afterwards, have made many remorseful about a lot of protests under him which is really sad, whereas in the west, the threshold to join protests and maintain protests is low, here it is high and any cynicism that comes from a protest can easily lead to protest fatigue here which seems to have happened.


The global influence of the USA has been demonstrated in this protest, different countries have had their citizens stage similar protests to fight racism in the USA and their own countries. Nigeria has not been left out though on a much smaller scale. Dealing with Nigeria, some critics have shrugged off Nigerian protests as the usual aspirational elitism of some Twitter noisemaking folk who consistently ignore local issues to focus on global issues, and when they even face local issues, it is always local issues with global twist. However, some have also pointed out that many nigerians have families in the USA and that these, being black, can be victims of police brutality as well. Whatever the case may be, the usa has situated itself as the front burner on the global consciousness again. Talk about influence.


Not to lose sight of the most important thing though. These protests happened because of long standing inequalities in expressions of justice towards different racial groups in the usa with blacks being on the receiving end of more brutal police methods for even seeming pecadilloes while 'whites' including mass murderers are treated in a humane and dignified manner.


The final nine minutes of George Floyd's life which were captured on video and shared the world over for people to see, ignited a movement which hopefully would produce long lasting change and improve the american justice system. A common saying is that a crisis is too precious to waste.


- Majekodummi O. wrote this piece. He is a Development Professional with a keen interest in Current Affairs.


PICTURE CREDITS:
- www.heartfm.ca
- www.thisiscollosal.com


MUSINGS ON THE GLOBAL PROTEST https://madukovich./2020/06/06/musings-on-the-global-protest/