Is change on the horizon?
On Wednesday’s Daily Pop, E!’s Justin Sylvester, Morgan Stewart and Erin Lim discussed whether the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery have finally ignited change in the United States of America.
Both across the nation and abroad, these deaths have sparked protests, commentary about Black Lives Matter and public outcry against police brutality. Erin kicked off the conversation by asking: “Besides George Floyd, there have been other controversial deaths recently, do you think this will ignite change?”
“I think we’re at the point in our society where there was a tipping point where Americans really realized that we cannot stand anymore and let this happen and not say anything,” Justin expressed. “But it’s also becoming a tipping point for law enforcement to educate themselves on, ‘How is this continuously happening?'”
As he continued, Justin optimistically noted that this “tipping point” will “come together finally and hopefully.”
In support of Justin’s point, Morgan highlighted that George Floyd’s death was not “an isolated incident.” Although these issues have plagued our nation for many years, Morgan suggested the momentum tied to this cause has inspired more people to get involved.
“I have never felt such momentum behind something, in a way that even for myself to feel the need to be more involved and understand what’s going on,” Morgan relayed. “So, I really do think that, obviously the events that have happened have been horrific and unimaginable, but I do think that the positivity coming out of them is that there really is going to be real change.”
Moving forward, Morgan believes there will be “zero tolerance for police officers that behave the way that man did.”
In this same episode, the trio also weighed in on the success of Blackout Tuesday. While the social media initiative was created so users could reflect on recent events and show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, mass usage of the movement’s hashtag buried important updates.
“There were hashtags that were being misused, some people were using #BlackLivesMatter, which was not allowing people to get the information that they needed for the protests or to see what’s going on in the world right now,” Erin explained. “So, a lot of people had to check each other and say like, ‘Hey! Make sure you are hashtagging Blackout Tuesday.'”
According to Morgan, she found herself “a little bit confused” while navigating the Blackout Tuesday initiative.
“First of all, my timeline was all black squares, but then I had people who were posting stories saying that completely defeats the purpose and that now is the time to be as vocal as possible,” she explained. “And so, then I ended up realizing that you can still post the black square, which I did, but really that doesn’t mean that you’re silent and taking a day off social media.”
Per Morgan, “It’s really a time to educate yourself, learn from people that are friends of yours or people that might know more than you do and take the opportunity to support your black friends, black businesses, black artists, entrepreneurs and so on.”
Although Justin had a similar sentiment to share, he gave a positive outlook on the initiative.
“I think a lot of people were confused on what to do and I think that happens a lot of times, because there are so many different messages out there,” Justin said. “But, in the grand scheme of things, it’s the show of solidarity. Even though we tried to make a cake, we ended up making cookies and it’s still good. We’re still gonna eat them!”
Although the initiative may not have been executed correctly by all supporters, Justin praised it for “starting conversations.”
For more ways to take action and get involved, please click here.
