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George Floyd and Newton’s Third Law
Newton’s third law states: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. I’d also submit that there can be an equal and opposing reaction.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot this past week—after George Floyd became the latest unarmed black man to be killed by the police 2 miles away from my house. Sadly, this isn’t a new thing. It’s so common, and has been going on for so long, it’s just another week in America. This great (if you’re white) country! The land of the free (if you’re white).
The action, in this case, is brutality and violence toward black people that has been played out on repeat, since our nation’s inception. The reaction isn’t just about the sickening murder of George Floyd. It’s about hundreds of years of black murders that have been committed by white people and all the violence committed against communities of color by police. The magnitude of this recent reaction is because the occurrence is frequent, cops rarely get charged, society hasn’t actually changed and politicians don’t really care that much (or worse, they incite more violence). The pot has been hot in America for hundreds of years, it’s been boiling over for a long time, the lid blows off from time to time. But remember, without heat, the water doesn’t boil. People react to actions. The racism, the brutality, the murder came first.
