The 2020 murder of George Floyd is one of the clearest examples of how politics appears in everyday life, even when it may not seem political at first. When I had first seen the video of George Floyd pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer, along with many others, I was reacting emotionally: angry, sad, and disbelieving. Yet as I learned more about American government, I started to see more than just a tragedy in that incident. It was a moment exposing how the political systems, civil liberties, and public institutions are operating in the lives of ordinary people.
One overarching theme that applies to our course and the George Floyd incident has to do with civil liberties. The Constitution provides certain guarantees against governmental power, such as due process protections and the right to be protected from unreasonable seizures. Because police officers represent government, the application of those rights is directly impacted. Regarding George Floyd’s situation, his civil liberties were not protected. The unreasonable force used upon him illustrates a disconnect that exists between the rights afforded people and what some experience in real life. Noticeably, this happens within minority communities where individuals commonly feel the Constitution does not equally apply its protections. Understanding civil liberties helps explain why so many people saw Floyd’s death as not just an individual act, but as a violation of fundamental rights.
Another important theme is political participation. Once the video of Floyd’s death spread across the country, millions of people participated in protests. Most were not political activists; many had never marched before. Participating in a protest is a form of political action protected by the First Amendment. It is a way that people can pressure the government, express dissatisfaction, and seek change. I remember seeing protests in my neighborhood. The people holding signs, chanting, and marching were exercising political power in a most direct way. It furthered my understanding that this is what political participation may entail, not limited to voting or contacting one’s elected officials; it can also take the form of public demonstrations when people feel the system has failed them.
The incident also ties in with representation, another critical theme. For most speakers and activists, George Floyd’s death mirrored a long history of Black Americans feeling unprotected and unheard by the institutions meant to represent them. Representation is more than the actual election of officials from different backgrounds; it is also about whether the government acts fairly for all citizens. This delay in arresting the officers involved and the fact that the video had to go viral before there was any action raised many people’s concerns that the system does not represent everyone equally. This ties directly to questions of democratic institutional functioning and whose voices count within them.
The George Floyd incident also illustrates how federalism shapes government responses: local, state, and federal officials reacted at different times and with different actions. The Minneapolis city officials rapidly fired the officers, state authorities took over the investigation, and the federal government initiated a civil rights inquiry into the incident. This is partly because under federalism, the dispersion of power across levels of government can make change slow or uneven. Understanding federalism helped me see why national police reform has been debated so heavily and why different states have different approaches to law enforcement accountability. Now, thinking retrospectively about the George Floyd incident, I feel it crystallized everyday politics. It showed how political decisions, government structures, and constitutional principles affect real people’s lives. It made me reflect upon my own role in democracy. Politics is not something distant or confined to the elections; it shows up in the systems we interact with daily and in the collective actions taken when those systems fail. What I learned from the George Floyd incident is that political awareness and involvement are requisite to making democracy function for all people. If you wish, I can make the tone more simple, personal, or even sound more like you.
