I was just saying to friends last night that I find myself struggling to find and maintain proper perspective about the George Floyd protests happening all over the country. Maybe it’s because it is happening during a global pandemic and also the very real possibility of losing American democracy. I mean, the protests seem like a big deal. Obviously. But how big? Is it 1968 big? Is it the beginning of another full chapter in the American struggle for racial equality? It feels like it is, but then I second guess myself. People do have a tendency to ascribe more importance to the events of their lifetime than future historians will.
Clarity may be elusive, but it does come. There are those moments, there are words, and there are images that bring it home: This is bigger than big. I don’t know why one detail or another turns my head like it does. I just know when it does. Let this image wash over you, for example. It’s a view of the street leading up to the White House. It’s 16th street in Washington DC. On it, in 50-foot high letters, are the words BLACK LIVES MATTER. It’s almost two blocks long. But that’s not even all of it. The mayor of DC has renamed this stretch of street Black Lives Matter Plaza.
Photo © Carlos Barria of Reuters