The Economist The legacy of George Floyd

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From: The Economist this week - Thursday Jun 11, 2020 06:04 pm
   
June 11th 2020 Read in browser
   
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  Our cover this week looks at the power of protest and the legacy of George Floyd. Mr Floyd was not famous. He was killed on a street corner in America’s 46th-largest city. Yet in death he has suddenly become the keystone of a movement that has seized all of the United States. Still more remarkably, he has inspired protests abroad, from Brazil to Indonesia, and France to Australia. Large-scale social change is hard. Protest movements have a habit of antagonising the moderate supporters they need to succeed. Yet Mr Floyd’s death holds the rich promise of social reform. Anyone who thinks racism is too difficult to tackle might recall that just six years before he was born, interracial marriage was still illegal in 16 American states. Today about 90% of Americans support it. America is both a country and an idea, and wrapped up in that idea is a conviction that progress is possible.

 
 
  Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-In-Chief  
     
 
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  The world this week
  
     
  Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced legislation to reform policing in America in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. The measures, which will be resisted in the Senate, would simplify the process for prosecuting officers for misconduct and curtail the “qualified immunity” law that shields them from civil lawsuits. Mr Floyd was laid to rest in his home town of Houston.
  
     
  More from politics this week  
     
  British Airways and other big airlines in Britain threatened the government with legal action over the quarantine for arrivals that came into force on June 8th. All passengers flying to Britain, including British citizens, must now complete a form stating where they will self-isolate for two weeks, subject to spot-checks and fines if they break the rules. The airlines, and the hospitality industry, are livid, believing more travellers will stay away, causing irreparable damage to their struggling businesses.
  
     
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Global protests
How George Floyd’s death reverberates around the world

The unrest in America has cheered its foes and globalised the struggle against racism
 
 
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The Intelligence
“There’s a sense that, for a long time, police have been above the law”—a chorus grows for reform

Also on the daily podcast: our obituaries editor reflects on George Floyd’s life
 
 
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