George Floyd is one of the most trending names on the internet. Some of you know what happened, some of you don’t and some of you might have already forgotten about it. So here is a quick recap of what happened. George Floyd was a 46-year-old black man who was killed by Derek Chauvin a white police officer. He handcuffed Floyd and faced down him on the street, he knelt on Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes. Two other officers restrained Floyd while the fourth officer stopped the passing people from interfering. For nine minutes, the police officer knelt on his neck just because he was black.
During the last few minutes, when Floyd just lay on the street without any motion or pulse none of the officers tried to revive him. When the medical technicians arrived the officer still knelt on his neck while he was being treated. This was a case of brutal murder just because the man had a darker skin tone. The only question that cropped into my head after hearing about this terrible incident is Have we humans lost all our humanity? People from all around the world revolted against this cruel act, people came together as one, as humans to give justice to George Floyd and the entire Black community. This incident taught us about some true values of life. So here is something we all must inculcate into our lives so that there isn’t another George Floyd.
Top 15 Things we can Learn from the GEORGE FLOYD Case
1. It’s high time we end racism
Racism is a strong belief within people that a certain race is superior while the other race is inferior. Racism is like a pandemic that has existed in our society since a very long time ago now, but still, we as humans have repeatedly failed to cure it. We have always known that these races exist but now is the time we do something about it. It is time we dissolve these races because the only thing it had done to us is separated us. No one in this world is superior to the other, no one in this world is below anyone. Having a fair tone, having a huge bulk of money, having power doesn’t make anyone superior. It’s today we end treating people around us as unequal, we must begin treating everyone with the same respect, the same love, and the same kindness irrespective of the caste, race, religion, they belong to. We must even eliminate the use of such unworthy words such as RACE.
2. Treat everyone equally
Equality, this word carries huge power as well as responsibility, equality gives you the freedom to fly in this open sky but also the responsibility that we must also make sure that everyone around us enables us to fly. Equality isn’t the duty of just our government its the duty of every citizen of this planet. Equality isn’t just about equal treatment but also acceptance, acceptance towards other’s religion, other’s sex, acceptance towards the fact that nobody is above you or below you they are beside you. Equality isn’t a human fight, its a human right. From today lets create a world without any divisions, an equal world. Start by treating people around you equally, start by eliminating the habit of asking a person their religion the first time you meet, start by smiling at a gay on the street the same way you smile at others, start by paying your employees based on the work they do; not based on their gender, these are the small steps we can take on the individual level to make differences huge enough to change the world.
3. Every life matters
Mother nature showered love on each of its creation, she never divided us, it’s we human who did it. Every form of life matters, be it humans, animals, or even the trees. Nowadays killing humans isn’t shocking at all, its something we read in newspapers every day. We kill animals just for the sake of fun, uprooting trees for our greedy needs is a habit we have developed. The Floyd case made #blacklivesmatter trending, the fact that we should clarify that any lives matter is itself a huge concern. It’s not just the black life, every living creatures life matters in this world. No matter how you are, your life matters don’t let anyone ever make you feel unworthy of living.
4. We are humans, we are one
Humanity, its something only humans are said to have, its the kind feelings we have towards each other. When we were brought into this world there were not any barriers between us, we humans created these barriers and separated one another. Slowly and steadily we lost our unity and our humanity, and today we listen about horrible acts that raises question on the very existence of humanity. Its time we get back together, unite as one human race, throw away all our boundaries and make sure we rebuild humanity. It’s essential to rebuild humanity because without humanity we will not only destroy the world around us but also ourselves. Nature has given us powers which no living creature possesses, it’s our duty to use that power wisely and make this planet a happy place to be in.
In Floyd’s case, social media worked as a powerful weapon, it helped the case reach people around the world. Within hours Floyd’s case was not just about America, it was about the entire world. Social media plays a crucial role in our daily lives, it is a very big part of our lives. With social media reaching people has become a very easy task, you can make a large number of people hear your voice. We spend hours a day just scrolling posts on our social media handles, why can’t we use it to throw light on issues that need to have people’s attention? We can use social media to have conversations about social problems, share our experiences to empower others, try finding solutions, try helping people. Don’t use social media to impress people, use it to impact people. Social media is more about community service and bringing people together rather than technology. Media is made up of both good and good, it is on us how we choose to use it.
6. Believe in the idea you promote
Whenever you share something on your social networking platform make sure that you do so because you believe in it, not just because its a social trend or it might make you look cool. Whenever you post about any social issues try inculcating it into your lives not just on social media. When you post about Black Lives Matter you must also make sure to value them in real life. Don’t just post it because the rest of the world is doing so, post about it because you believe in it, because you wanna make yourself and the world about it. Using social media comes with responsibility, it’s your responsibility to be yourself, not to misguide people using your social sites, and use it to spread positivity into the world. It takes a minute to share something on social media, try taking a minute to also think about what you are sharing.
7. A culprit does not represent the whole community
A culprit is without a doubt a wrong person who deserves to be punished for the sins he has committed. But the culprit doesn’t represent a whole community, George Floyd was killed by a police officer but that doesn’t mean that the entire police community is evil and hates black people. Whenever such horrible events take place we always end up hating the entire community that the culprit resides in. The world already has a lot of hatred existing within itself, so why add up to it, why hate someone who has nothing to do with the crime that has been committed?
8. Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon
George Floyd’s case brought many people together from around the world, especially in America, we saw various people seeking justice using non-violent ways. Some did choose the violent means but the people using non-violence as their weapon were way more. It’s amazing to see that even in a year like 2020, people believe in the power of non-violence, they believe in the power of peace. This is something everyone must understand and preach. Non-violence is said to be the weapon of the strong, because at the center of non-violence lies the principle of love. Always remember if you follow the principle of an eye for an eye, it’s just gonna make the whole world blind.
9. Throw light on every issue
Don’t support the case, support the idea. What I mean by this statement is don’t be part of the trend, be part of the idea. Each case with symbolizes injustice, brutality, and evilness should get the same coverage as the George Floyd case. It was great to see people coming together but several cases happen around the world even in front of us, why don’t we talk or take action regarding those? A huge number of people die every day, each of which is murdered by racism, violence, ragging, rape, terrorism, and whatnot. Educate yourself about the things happening around the world. But start with your home, make sure no family or friend of yours ever indulges themselves in such horrible acts. Address every issue, whether they are trending or not. When you notice such sins happening around you, take action, stop them, help the victim, and do anything you can to help them but do not run away from there, or ignore it.
10. Importance of love and peace
Love and Peace is something that will not just make us better but also the world we live in. Our minds are consumed by anger, ego, greed, hate, and much more, these elements of our minds take control of our lives and make us do evil things. Inculcating love and peace into our lives will spread happiness into this world. Love makes other people’s happiness matter to you, so no one would ever think about hurting others. Peace creates harmony within ourselves and the people around us, it helps in creating happiness and freedom between people as well as the nations. Teach yourself, your children, and the people around you about the values of love and peace, and create a kind place to reside in.
11. Inculcate the correct mindset in the mind of the new generation
A tree to be strong it must have strong roots, similarly for a person to be good he/she must have good values within himself. Start teaching your children at a small age that color of skin doesn’t matter, teach them to respect girls, teach them to have love inside their hearts, not ego and anger, teach them to not discriminate based on someone’s religion. In childhood children are like wet clay, you can easily mold them the way you wish them to be. But that doesn’t mean that you can never change, but changing your mindset once you are an adult can be hard but it’s not impossible. All I mean to say is that teach good things to your children so that the next generation does see the things we see now.
12. Beauty lies in our hearts, not in our skin
We have messed up when it comes to defining beauty. Beauty isn’t about being fair, wearing beautiful clothes, having silky smooth hair, wearing make-up, beauty is about having a kind heart. Black is beautiful, White is beautiful, brown is beautiful, and each one of us is beautiful. Your appearance doesn’t define beauty, your nature does. Beauty lies within everyone but very few of us can see it. Do not treat someone badly just because you don’t have the vision to see their beauty. The day when every single one of us sees everyone as beautiful, is the day we truly define beauty.
13. Value life
Day by day we are losing the value of life, things like murder, suicide, and hunting are quite normal to us. Its time we awaken ourselves and look around us. The life we have is the most precious gift, giving birth is the biggest power one could have, and taking away life is the biggest sin one can commit. So value life, value everything you have. There always will be someone out there who doesn’t have something that you do, so don’t waste that by regretting the things you don’t have. None of us know what’s gonna come after death so don’t lose or take life so easily, understand its worth.
14. Hate does not destroy hate, only love does
The power of love is much more than that of hate, love can heal everything whereas hate can destroy everything. When you choose love over hate you are changing the world for good. The world already has tons of hatred within it, stop adding up to it. Your single step of choosing love over hate will destroy ignorance, ego, indifference, fear, borders, and barriers all at once. If someone hates you, to destroy them you don’t have to destroy them back, you have to love them instead. Because hate can never eliminate hate only love can.
15. Witnessing a crime and doing nothing is an even bigger crime
Many times we see people doing bad stuff in public, how many of us try to stop it? How many of us watch it from a distance and enjoy it? How many of us ignore it? When you see a crime you become a part of it, you can either be on the good side by stopping it or on the evil side by not doing anything. A criminal isn’t the only one who commits a crime, it’s also the one who ignores crime. Many of us do so to stay out of trouble but we must realize that we are just creating more trouble for ourselves. So the next time to see bad stuff happening, do anything you can to stop it, end the trouble don’t make it any bigger than it already is.
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